Tosa Farmers Market Forced to Ban Dogs

The Tosa Farmers Market has prohibited all dogs at the Farmers Market for the remainder of the season after multiple incidents, including dogs fighting in the marketplace.

The governing board of the market made the decision after another incident Saturday, according to vice president Pam Christopherson.

"The Board does not take this decision lightly and will review this policy in the future," Christopherson said in a prepared statement. "For the safety of our customers, vendors and our furry friends we feel we must immediately put this policy in place."

Market managers declined to describe the specific incident Saturday that led to the prohibition, but made it clear that it was just one of a number of problems all season with people bringing their pets to the market.

The market attempted to deal with the ongoing problems by instituting a dog/owner behavior policy, but clearly board members felt that was not doing the job when incidents continued.

Among the problems the policy attempted to address were having dogs off leashes, on long leashes allowing them to impede guests, owners allowing dogs too close to vendor tables and food, dog relieving themselves and, of course, dogs with a tendency to bark at or fight with other dogs.

At the time, a market staffer told Wauwatosa Patch that while she was a "dog person" herself, she did not understand why owners would think that just because they were in an open-air market, those behaviors would be any more welcome than they would be in a grocery store or restaurant – where dogs (excepting guide dogs) are prohibited anyway, for health and safety reasons.

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