Dog Lovers - Need Your Comments (residents & visitors)

This is a very short sighted policy. Most of the tourists that travel,with their dogs stay for long periods of time and are much more valuable to the economy than those of us who visit for shorter periods of time. My wife and I are dog lovers and actually enjoy meeting the dogs that folks are walking and watching them play in the surf. It would seem to me that rather than banning dogs,passing and enforcing leash and scoop laws would have the same benefit without sacrificing some of your most valuable visitors.
We have a somewhat similar situation here. My wife and I enjoy going to local craft fairs. The dogs make lots of new human friends and we almost always purchase. But if dogs aren't allowed we simply don't go. I think the same thing will likely happen should they not change their position.

Six years ago my wife, myself and our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel moved from San Miguel de Allende to Zihuatanejo because we ALL fell in love with La Ropa Beach. We bought an expensive condo behind the Tides (now Viceroy Hotel)because we loved walking and playing in our front yard - La Ropa Beach. The last two years have been very unpleasant for us, having to deal with rude and officious people trying to enforce on us this new and unnecessary change of local regulation introduced by the previous administration. Whilst it is accepted that regulation regarding dog control and hygiene are acceptable, banning family members outright is draconian in the extreme. As I often, as a fulltime resident, meet with many visitors to La Ropa and the Viceroy Hotel, I can assure you that many regular visitors to this town have stopped coming as a direct result of no longer being able to bring their companion pets with them. My wife is now quite frightened to go with our dog to the beach, but I will continue to walk my dog in the morning and evening until I am either arrested, fined or succumb to the pressures of officialdom and place my Residence on the market and look for another beach to go and live on.

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Graham Felipe'

In 2010, my husband and I purchased a condo in La Madera which we have since occupied for 7 to 12 months per year. We decided to purchase property in Zihuatanejo because we love the area, and especially enjoy daily walks with our dog on Playa la Ropa. At the time our dog joined our family, we were actually staying at the Catalina Beach Resort. We never dreamed that dogs would be banned from the beaches in Zihuatanejo. Had we known that, we would not have chosen to purchase a home in Zihua. The unpleasantness we have come to fear each time we step on the beach with our 8lb Chihuahua makes us want to spend less time in our second home.

I had serious thoughts about buying in Zihua and have looked at numerous properties. My only hesitation was the variability in airline schedules and prices from the Bay Area.

I wouldn't consider this for an instant now because of this dog banning nonsense. The writer below is correct- people who come with their dogs often stay longer than those without pets.

Not only that, but people who travel with pets are the most responsible pet owners you can find. It's a tremendous hassle to take your dog out of the country, and we obey the rules. In fact, I have been in several countries- Peru, Czech Republic and others- where people stare and laugh at us when we pick up our dog poop because it isn't even done there.

While we are presently dog-less, but when we did have one, we were always religious about picking up after her and have witnessed dog owners doing the same on Zihua beaches. This silly regulation banning dogs from the beaches needs to go. We have traveled to Zihua for over 15 years and built a second home there. Over this period of time we have witnessed a precipitous decline in foreign visitors. There is much the local authorities can do to reverse this trend. Repealing the no dogs rule would be a good first step.

We have been coming to Zihua for going on 10 years now. We have gradually increased how long we stay and now are staying for 3 to 4 weeks. We can't leave our 6 lb bundle of love home for that long and Zihua was the perfect place to bring her with us. When my husband retires in a couple years I'm sure we will stay longer. We would hate to have to look for another place to go where we can take our dog because we love Zihua so much. We are responsible dog owners, always cleaning up after her and keeping her on the leash. I truly hope that they will reconsider banning dogs on the beaches.

While I am not a dog owner I have no problem with allowing dogs (under control of their humans) on the beaches in Zihua. I have never run across dog waste while enjoying the beach. I agree that people who jump through all the required hoops to bring their pets from outside the country are very likely to understand the need to control and clean up after their pet on the beach.

As a full time resident in Zihua, and the care taker of 3 dogs that were found on the beach, 2 that needed medical care and the vet said 1 probably wouldn't make it, we proved him wrong. They are very good companion and now very healthy. We saved them from the cities eradication program and they have a real good life now. We take our dogs on regular walks, which if we miss one of the walk days, they certainly let us know. The ill intended rules that are in place are causing many people to look at other destinations than Zihua because of this stupid rule. The city of Zihua would be better off by deleting this ruling before the regular tourists change their plans. The city should be more active in dealing with the dogs throughout the area that are a danger to dogs being walked and their handlers. An incident whereas a loose pitt bull that attacked a 80 year old woman and her dog which was reported to the police, tourist police, and Salud office went totally unheeded. While at their office, their dog napping truck arrived with the box full of dogs, but they couldn't do anything about this problem dog. In La Madera there is still one dog with an irresponsible owmer that has attacked at least 6 small or old dogs out for a walk.

Sorry that this has hit home for you, but really appreciate that you are using your great resources to try to take care of the problem.

We spent 5 months in Zihuatenajo last winter, and 4 in the 4 prior years. We are considering purchasing a place on Playa La Ropa, and dog regulations have a lot to do with it.

We support SPAZ-HKP by donating leashes and collars and cash. They provide a great service, and we usually end up having a couple of local animals neutered during our stay.

Our two dogs are both from Mexico-one from Playa la Ropa, and one from Puebla. We have managed to exercise and swim them early in the mornings pretty successfully, but would love to not have to worry about being harassed. We tried to get permits for them, but the woman in charge would not accept our letter from Dr. Grayeb.

We had a no dogs allowed ordinance on our Southern California Beach. When it got to be more than we could deal with, we had calm meetings with the harbor department and animal control. We finally came up with the following rules: Dogs, on leash, are allowed from 5pm to 9am. Why those hours? That leaves the lifeguards free from having to try to enforce dog rules. Owners/handlers must carry something (other than an article of clothing) to pick up their animals waste. That's it. Very straight forward.

Our morning walks always include strangers who miss their dogs and need dog love. We have had a number of people who have claimed that we make their vacations more enjoyable because they know they will see us in the morning and get the dog love they need to get them through their vacations. A couple have even said that they wouldn't be returning without knowing they could find dogs to talk to and love.

Until last year, we were the semi-official providers of dog love for the SOB volleyball camp held in Ixtapa in January every year. They do an afternoon/evening event on the beach at Playa la Ropa, and their participants feel much better after visiting with our dogs.

If there is anything we can do to help from here, do please say so. It's a very important issue to many of us, a quality of life issue.

Thank you everybody for your comments. It will be really helpful to let the authorities know what all the animal lover thinks. We hope that we have good news soon about this ridiculous law.

My wife and I bought a home on the far end of Playa la Ropa in 2005, and for years have always enjoyed walking on the beach with our two little dogs, each 7 lbs. We travel with them and consider them to be family members. In fact, one of the reasons that we came to ZIhua, was that at that time it was a dog-friendly town where we could walk out the front gate onto the beach with our canine friends. We have always been very careful to pick up after them, and have never encountered anyone who objected to their presence, with the exception of one restaurant owner. During the last few years, however, we have been repeatedly confronted by rude "dog patrol" people, who have made a simple walk on the beach an unpleasant experience. These employees seem to do nothing to actually make the beach clean (like picking up trash), but sit around all day not doing much.
In addition to this being personally offensive to us, the current dog policies seem backwards, and are harmful to the economy of ZIhuatanejo. The clear trend in travel in the U.S. is towards INCREASING and not DECREASING dog-friendly travel opportunities. There are many articles on this (just Google "Pet Travel Trends". The number of tourists traveling with their pets has doubled in the last 10 years from 19% in 2004 to 37% in 2014. The U.S. travel industry is meeting this demand by increasingly accommodating pets in hotels, restaurant outdoor areas, parks, jogging trails, etc. The articles also point out that it is expensive to travel with pets, which means those who do so have plenty of disposable income to spend on the local economies.
It seems odd and counterproductive for Zihuatanejo to ignore this trend in tourism and in fact to move in the opposite direction by actively DISCOURAGING those with pets from coming to Zihuatanejo. In the U.S., this amounts to something like 40% of the tourist market, and I suspect it could achieve the same numbers in Mexico. It seems to me that our town and its local hotels and restaurants need as many paying tourists as they can get. I encourage the local government to take advantage of this opportunity to increase tourism and to bring tourist dollars in Zihuatanejo by re-opening the beaches to dogs and responsible dog owners.

When having meetings with the city government concerning this law, it would seem that the person or persons from the certain restaurant on La Ropa beach should be present to voice opinions. I still don't know really what it is that
this restaurant objects to or why! Maybe a bad experience or two? Or maybe overhearing customers in the restaurant ranting about loose dogs running on
La Ropa beach? Those who are complaining should be included in meetings on the subject . . .JMO I live here year-round and it pisses my that I can't take my bull terrier to the beach for a romp swimming. He loves the water and often times it's hard to get him to come out when it's time to go. That, we don't do any more since this law was implemented. A very sad time for Zihua dog owners.

Our dog loves swimming in the ocean, and so do we. Our daily beach walks and swims are a very important part of our time in Zihuatanejo. We are definitely cutting way back on our time in Zihua because of this regulation. Less $$$ going to the local economy.

I think there are more canine lovers than we think (even the strays), allways enjoy seeing pups taking their owners for a drag Lol! Seriously stop for a minute and imagine a life without man's best friend.

Pretty crappie Eh! Yup I am canadian

After 3 years of this dog sillyness by "officials" we will regretfully have to rethink our lenghty vacations in Z. I travel with my dogs for companionship and for security. My dogs are not 8lbs puppies, they are well behaved. I am not going to beg or plead to enjoy the beach or an occasional romp in the water. Many cities: Carmel, Portland, San Diego, Austin are very dog friendly, they realize that many people travel with four legged friends, as much as we enjoy Mexico and our many friends we see here year after year we will choose to spend our time and our money elsewhere.

Encantamos los perros en la playa cuando visité a Zihuatanejo de Estados Unidos todos años. Nuestro perro es demasiado grande y no puede aguantar el calor, así no se traer, pero nosotros sentamos la falta y disfrutamos a ver y acariciar los perros en la playa. Es muy importante para la ambiente total a sentar cómodo a tener perros en la playa.
We have enjoyed the dogs on the beaches when we have made our annual visits to Zihuatanejo from the USA. Our dog is too large and cannot tolerate the heat, so we don't bring him, but we miss him and enjoy seeing and petting dogs on the beach. It's valuable to have dogs on the beach as a part of a complete and comfortable environment.

To Whom it May Concern,

We understand that dogs are being banned from Zihuatanejo beaches. This is confusing to us because we've never experienced any problems or encountered anyone else who has had a problem with dogs on the beaches. There are many tourists, including us, that bring their dogs with them on vacation. We've been coming to Zihuatanejo almost every year since 1997. Starting out we only stayed for 7-days but now have worked our stay up to 17-days. We have brought our Chihuahua with us 7 times and his 8th will be this coming February. He is extremely well behaved, he's been through several levels of obedience training and has passed the test to become a certified Canine Good Citizen by the American Kennel Association. When we walk with him on the beach we always have bags and pick it up after him. Our walks are in the early morning and then at sunset as it's typically too hot for him in the middle of the day.

By banning dogs from your beaches you're depriving many tourists from the enjoyment of bringing their beloved pets with them on vacation. Please reconsider this ban. Otherwise, in future years we'll spend the money we have budgeted for vacations somewhere other than Zihuatanejo. The same can probably be said of the many other tourists who bring their pets with them on vacation.

Sincerely,
Steve and Kristi Ashton