It’s a good thing that the views of people living in Bend have changed about dogs. They used to be nothing short of brutal.

In 1909, the city’s marshal was only able to collect taxes for a fraction of the dogs running around Bend. An editorial in The Bulletin suggested providing the marshal with a shotgun and “plenty of ammunition, with instructions to shoot on sight every dog for which no tax has been paid.”

Not sure if that suggestion became a reality. We hope not.

Contrast that with the Bend Park & Recreation District’s new plans for Hollinshead Park. It is going to fence in the dog park area, which covers most of the park’s grassy portion. The change will “increase park-user safety and reduce conflicts,” the park district explained.

Dogs can’t read the signs that note where the off-leash park ends. Some dog owners don’t seem to be able to read them, either.

Bend city code used to require that any park where a dog could run off leash had to be fenced. That was changed more than 10 years ago when dog parks were being expanded. Big Sky Park included the first dog park in the city. For some dog lovers, it seemed remote and it didn’t feel like enough. Bend parks had to wait for the Bend City Council to change the code before it could create off-leash parks without fences.

The old code was probably right all along. Good fences make for good dog parks.

But just look how far we’ve come.

Here is the June 16, 1909 editorial and its shotgun solution to problem dogs:

“City Marshal Lynes has been able to collect taxes for only 16 dogs out of the dozens of the pestiferous curs that infest the streets of Bend. Most of the owners swore solemnly that they had just given the dogs away or promised to send them out of town at once. The best means by which to relieve this nuisance is to provide the marshal with a good shotgun and plenty of ammunition, with instructions to shoot on sight every dog for which no tax has been paid.

What mania is it that possesses nearly everyone in Bend to desire a dog. They are noisy, dirty, disease carrying creatures, and most people have no earthly use for them.

There is no objection to a dog that is being used for some good purpose, but there is altogether too many of the useless misnamed ‘pets’ running the streets of Bend, a nuisance to everybody. Better send them to dog heaven by the shotgun route.”