Department of Health cracks down on dogs on the patio at Midlands, Wonderland; doggie sit-in Sept. 23

This is lame. The city’s Department of Health visited Wonderland and Midlands recently, telling both that dogs aren’t allowed on their patios (or inside.) Washingtonian has the story, where apparently someone complained to DOH about the pooches.

Midlands posted on Facebook about it, as they have a dog in residence on the patio, Andy Pants, who has a doghouse, and folks sometimes bring their dogs to hang out while they hang out. Wonderland sometimes has customers bring pooches to their patio too. To me, I don’t see the problem — these are pretty big outdoor places and the dogs aren’t inside or near the food prep areas. It’s a nice thing to see too. Dogs are nice. There has been a law banning dogs for some time but it was rarely enforced. Washingtonian said DOH showed up after receiving a complaint.

But Midlands isn’t taking this laying down or rolling over (get it) — they posted a message asking people to contact their councilmembers and the relevant government officials, and Ward 1 Councilember Nadeau posted this recently on her Facebook page: “Lots of frustrated folks have been contacting my office about a recent city crackdown on dogs on restaurant patios. Working on it!”

Midlands has also organized a doggie sit-in and “PETition signing” on Saturday, Sept. 23 urging people to bring their dogs and sit on the patio in protest.

Here’s the Facebook post from Midlands:

Dear Friends, Neighbors and Dog Parents,

We deeply regret having to make this statement, but Washington DC’s Dept. of Health just paid us a visit and told us we are NO LONGER ALLOWED TO HAVE DOGS on the property until further notice. This means all dogs including Andy Pants. We are very sorry for this awful change, but we have no control over it. Write your council member, we are.

Ward 1 CM Brianne Nadeau (bnadeau@dccouncil.us) since both Midlands and Wonderland are both in her district,

Health Committee Chair Vincent Gray (vgray@dccouncil.us) and his committee director egoulet@dccouncil.us