The Diamond Head Bark Park exists today because of one man’s determination “that there certainly must be someplace where the people can be welcome to take their dogs.” Clark Hatch, a fitness pioneer, said his dog “Buster inspired me to create a place where people and dogs off leash could socialize and play together."

The Diamond Head Bank Park is the first dog park in the Hawaii. It sits on State land at Ft. Ruger, but is neither a State nor City park, and receives no governmental funding. The State issued a land use permit in 1998 to People & Pet Park, Inc., a non-profit corporation formed by Clark to operate the park.

For the past 25 years Clark has been the major – and sometimes only – source of funding for the park operations. While much of the work at the park has been kindly done by volunteers, there is still the need to purchase dog waste bags, pay for grounds upkeep and insurance, the water bill, and other inevitable expenses.

As time passes it becomes imperative that the users of the park replace Clark as the source of funding of park activities, and this prompted the establishment of the PayPal account in early 2021 – and the posting of QR codes throughout the park.

Since March 2021 generous park users have contributed $3,171.44 to the park – but that is an average of only $132.14 per month.

With the return of the park website (which appears to have gone offline in 2011) we are working to provide more transparency to park users about park expenses and opportunities for park users to become more involved in the future of the park.

In the meantime if you – and your furkids – enjoy the Diamond Head Bark Park and want to see it continue to operate please consider making a contribution to fund its ongoing expenses. The best way to so is via PayPal (you don’t actually need a PayPal account yourself – any credit or debit card will work. Please set up a monthly contribution if you are a regular park user.

Simply click the button: