Letter: Leash laws should be enforced

To the community,

There is a reason for the leash law.

A couple days ago, I was riding my bike on one of our beautiful mountain bike trails and when coming around a blind corner I encountered two dogs off leash that caused me to flip head over landing on my shoulder.

Bob Sweatt

I recall hearing a crunch, crunch, and crunch. Upon rolling over and sitting up, one of the dogs was lunging and barking at me and I thought I was now going to be bit.

After pulling the dog away, the owner of the dogs asked me if I was OK. Being in shock and in pain I didn’t know what to say other than I told her she should have had her dogs on leash. She came back at me with, “I always ride slowly down this hill.”

Well, I don’t think I was going that fast because I was holding a piece of bark in my hand for carving and I don’t think it would have mattered anyway because the dogs would have done the same thing.

She continued on her way with her dogs and I just sat there.

After gaining my composure, I got up, picked up my bike and because my backpack was so heavy, I put it on my handle bars and started walking up the steep hill to my truck. Naturally, the straps on the backpack got tangled in the spokes which made it that much harder and a continual adjustment was necessary. After getting back to the truck I had to lift the bike up into the bed, which was not fun. Then, I just stood there for a while. Before getting into the truck, I noticed the lady was walking back the other direction with her dogs now on leash. I sure could have used her help with my bike. She again blurted out “are you OK?” To which I responded a quivery I don’t know.

Well, upon going to the emergency and getting an X-ray, I found out I had a fractured humeral bone in my shoulder. The doctor gave me some Percocet for the pain, put my arm in a sling and sent me on my way.

I guess I am writing this to bring awareness to the need of having dogs on leash when you are sharing a trail that is narrow and has blind corners. I understand why people let their dogs have more independence when out in the open, but I now truly understand why we have the law and am now a firm believer in using a leash.

I hope this article will bring awareness and if it keeps one person from injury like me, it will be worth it.

Bob Sweatt, South Lake Tahoe