The primates of Park Avenue may have met their match. A group of French Bulldog owners has recently drawn the ire of at least one Upper East Sider who seeks to stop the precious pups from their weekly playdates at Carl Schurz Park.
Instagram’s @FrenchiesofUES has been organizing weekly hour-long meetups for the four-legged friends since last September. The lovable furballs use that time to “celebrate birthdays, snap photos, and, of course, run around together while playing with whichever other pups are at the park that day (they do not, in fact, put up a velvet rope with a sign that says “Only Frenchies Allowed”).”
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But at least one person has had enough of the cuteness and started a separate Instagram account — @stop_the_meetups — to protest to meetups.
“Their grievances include but are not limited to: The dogs weighing more than 25 pounds; some dogs coming in from other neighborhoods (“Chelsea, Brooklyn, even as far as NJ”); the Frenchie meetup organizer having a “holier than thou” attitude and seeming to “hold court” over the dog park,” wrote Guest of a Guest.
The Frenchie feud went viral when NBC News reporter and Frenchie dog mom Kalhan Rosenblatt brought attention to the neighborhood drama on Twitter. The thread quickly prompted a social media dogfight and a barrage of adorable dog pics flooding Rosenblatt’s feed.
The @stop_the_meetups account – whose owner made it clear that they love all dogs and was not seeking to bash Frenchies – was created last month and notes it was supposed to be deleted on July 23 (though as of writing, it’s still up). The account’s earliest post (at least the earliest which is still active) appeared on July 9 when it complained of overcrowding using a photo “from a few months ago” and urged the “overpacked” meetup to be moved to other parks on the Upper East Side.
The most recent post came on July 21 when it announced it would be shutting down — faulting Rosenblatt’s large Twitter following for the bullying and threats received in the wake of the viral thread. Rosenblatt, who later published her own article about the doggie drama, did ask her followers not to message, bully or antagonize the owner of the move the meetup account” within hours of her initial post.
It appears @FrenchiesofUES also fell victim to online bullying. In a post of its own, the account asked for respectful discourse and promised to abide by the park’s rules.
A private meetup (sans dogs?) is reportedly scheduled between the @stop_the_meetups and @FrenchiesofUES Instagram account owners “to discuss how the communities can come to a better solution.”
