Toddlers Around Large Animals

-This has irked me enough that I don’t plan on going back to that dog park, but I wondered what the general consensus is on this topic-

Basically here’s what happened.

We take our dog to a dog park. Obviously that means a Lili comes, too. She LOVES it! She usually sits on the bench or stands on the ground and watches the puppies play. She ALWAYS has an adult right next to her (within grabbing distance), we’ve taught her to not run at the dogs or get too close to them while they play, and we try to keep her pretty far away from the group. We do allow individual dogs we know are safe to approach her and say hi, I mostly just don’t want a fight or rough housing to happen and she ends up in the middle of it.

Well we’re trying out a new dog park, and we’ve been twice. BOTH times an adult (different person each time) has mentioned “babies aren’t allowed here”, told me I needed to pick her up, and given me glares like I’m the worst mother in the world or like I’m endangering my child.

I checked the rules of that park, none say kids aren’t allowed. They say kids need to be supervised, and I feel like she is definitely supervised.

I was raised around big animals; dogs, horses, cows, pigs, etc, and where I’m from it’s normal to allow your kid around them from a young age, as long as you’re following common sense: teach the kid to be safe and always be able to remove the child from the situation quickly if needed. Maybe because this park is in the city that’s not normal here, I dunno. It irked me.

So my question is, do you or would you raise your small children around big animals? Would you allow them to go to a dog park with you from a young age?

Edit because I know dog parks differ in other areas: my area has 10+ dog parks, all are off leash in the fence. Many have on-leash trails you can use too. The off leash sections are all over an acre in size, and I keep about a football field length distance between my child and the dogs. If they begin playing closer to where she is, we move her away. If any dog we don’t know comes up to greet her, we pick her up as they’re approaching. I also know and recognize dog body language and use that knowledge as needed to make decisions to keep her and my dog safe.