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On the eve of the important summer tourist season, the island of Nantucket has a dirty problem on its hands, or, really, on its feet.
The island's dogs have been leaving more than paw prints on Nantucket's beautiful beaches, and the human visitors who've paid $500 per night for a hotel room aren't charmed when a mushy misstep ruins a romantic walk on the beach.
Dog poop has become such a mess on the island's beaches and parks that the town is telling beachgoers to leave their mutts home this summer. That's right. No more Frisbee with Fido at Jetties Beach.
As it turns out, there are a few problems with Nantucket's clean beach movement. The town doesn't have the authority to ban dogs from its public beaches. It can enforce its leash law, but dogs -- leashed dogs anyway -- have as much right to the island's public beaches as do the CEOs who fly to the island on their own jets. So the new order is more like a request.
And Nantucket has a reputation as a dog friendly travel destination. In fact, smartertravel.com published a blog earlier this month about a new, 12-room hotel, the Woof Hotel, that caters to dog lovers and their pets. You can even fly your dog to the island on Cape Air. (And you thought the guy sitting next to you on the flight to Miami drooled a lot.)
I'm guessing that a lot of dog lovers won't comply with the Nantucket Park and Recreation Commission's request. Some will blatantly ignore it. Others will smuggle their yippy Paris Hilton dogs onto the beach in their Nantucket Lightship baskets.
So how about a compromise that will enable dogs to enjoy the beaches and romantics to enjoy their sunset walks? How about doggie diapers?
One Hawaiian company even makes jam-style diapers for dogs. The hip Hawaiian prints might make trendsetters out of those Nantucket hounds and take some of the bite out of their having to wear diapers to the beach.
