Va State Parks & Dog fees

3 dog nights wrote:
A while back we had a thread going with the pro's and con's of the Va State Park Dog fee's ($5 per night, per dog-max 3 nights) there were a lot of thoughts of better ways to offset the "cost" of pet's in the park. Please list ideas. Don't need to hear how bad it is to charge responsible pet owners and such. Just solutions and ideas. I have a meeting scheduled with a representative, who will present these to the Va Dept of Conservation & Recreation. First two ideas would be a Pet Deposit, refunded after your camping site was inspected. (seems cost prohibitive) second would be a flat fee per night per site. Not per animal per night per site. Please forward any other ideas so we can have a chance of changing this policy.

agree with you that the deposit/inspection/refund idea is too cumbersome and labor intensive. I don't like the idea of a flat fee, either. a family with 3-dogs can do three times the damage as a family with a single dog. a fee of $X (and X has to be realistic in order for it to make a difference) per animal is the way to go.

is 3 the maximum number of dogs, the maximum number of nights the fee is charged regardless of the length of stay or the maximum number of nights someone with a dog may stay in the park? I'd be against limiting the number of nights someone with a dog can stay in the park (and I understand that most govt campgrounds limit stays to 14 or 21 days and I agree with that).

the rule has got to include a process by which irresponsible pet owners who simply ignore the rules can be ejected from the park.