The covert operations begin as soon as my local Paris park opens for the day.
“Police down by the town hall entrance,” warns one message in a chat group with hundreds of subscribers. Others send snatched photos of park guards on the move.
The mission of this undercover network: letting dogs run around undetected. Every morning, corgis, spaniels and a host of other Parisian mutts make a break for it across the fields of one of the French capital’s larger green spaces in hilly Buttes-Chaumont. Their freedom carries a risk. Letting dogs off the lead is strictly forbidden. Owners who get caught face fines of at least €35, and there is no shortage of penalties. Last year a chihuahua was accused of “meandering by a dangerous animal” — the most common charge.
With strict restrictions on everything from transport to outdoor space in one of Europe’s most densely populated cities, the situation for the city’s estimated 100,000 dogs is becoming increasingly untenable, owners say.
During municipal elections that concluded in March, their demands made it all the way to political headlines, with candidates including the Socialist victor Emmanuel Grégoire promising a shake-up.
The problem is Paris is no longer the preserve of little lapdogs. Dogs of all breeds and sizes are more present in public spaces, says Loïc Amiot of “Nous les chiens de Paris” (We the dogs of Paris) — meaning there need to be rules of engagement.
Exclusion zones and punitive measures are the de facto policy — in part to counter the habitual disregard owners have for cleaning up their dog’s mess. Still, restrictions are harsher here than in other big cities such as London or New York, where Central Park has off-leash times. In Paris, most of the famed Luxembourg Gardens are off limits, even to dogs on leads; and only the smallest are welcome on buses, making it hard to get to forests outside town.
Grégoire — who was part of the previous Socialist city hall administration responsible for the status quo — has said that he will review the situation and create more dedicated dog parks. But for now people have been responding to the restrictions in the most Parisian way of all: by ignoring the rules.
“There are just not many places we can go,” says Thomas Puig, a resident of the 10th arrondissement who is walking with his American border collie Léon off the leash along the Canal Saint-Martin.
In his neighbourhood there are around 3,000 dogs and just one small dog park, which is next to a rubbish dump. It was moved here from a sunny spot further up the canal after neighbours complained about the barking.
“We didn’t use to bother anyone and we got it in the neck from people, so now we’ve decided to become a pain too — it’s the only way it works,” Puig says.
As we walk we cross paths with municipal police who opt to turn a blind eye this time. But further along, there is a collection of newly minted “NO DOGS” signs next to freshly planted bushes.
Paris is a pressure cooker where there are always fights to be picked. A biking revolution, for example, has transformed mobility but also raised the number of conflicts between cyclists, pedestrians and drivers.
There are limits to what can be done, as even dog parks are imperfect solutions. One canine educator says she has come across some dogs who don’t even respond normally to their names because they’ve never been run around outside the confined spaces.
Dog lovers are hoping that the rules in some of Paris’s rarefied green spaces will be loosened: more morning slots for proper bounding about before 9am, which the Monceau park in the swish 8th arrondissement permits on some lawns in springtime.
Until then they will keep letting their dogs off the lead and try not to get caught. “Morning walks used to be my favourite time. Now I’m on edge and dread bumping into police,” says Irish national Aoife, who moved near the Buttes-Chaumont roughly a year ago with Rua, a caramel-coloured long-haired collie, and has already been fined twice. The rules, she says, are just not doable. “I can’t have this dog on a lead 24/7.”
