Exclusive | Ruff crowd: Coaches, parents confront brazen rogue dog owners at popular NYC park

It’s one nasty turf war.

Furious coaches, parents and neighbors staged a showdown with snarling dog owners at a popular but feces-filled Brooklyn ballfield over the weekend that included some pooch-lovers appearing to threaten violence — against kids.

The team of sports supporters launched a “get-our-fields-back” effort Saturday, bringing pint-sized sluggers to play ball at the 3-acre Green Central Knoll park in Bushwick.

Its field has become popular with rogue dog owners who slip past city-posted “no pets’’ signs and through a torn fence to stroll around with their off-leash canines, which dig holes on the field and leave behind slippery waste.

“When does the game start?” an unwelcome dog owner asked Saturday, adding as if it were OK to walk their pooch: “I’ve seen them play baseball here with the dogs in the back.”

Another canine owner sneered, “We’re going to bring [the dogs] a little closer to that area.’’

A coach told the scofflaws, “A pitbull bit one of our kids.”

A dog owner shot back, “I bite, too.

“You want to see it?”

]The site’s ripped-open fence, left unrepaired for months, was partially pushed back into place Saturday for about an hour before the brazen dog owners tore it open again.

“It’s the only green space around here,” argued a dog owner who only gave his first name, Brennan, to The Post as he entered the field with his mutt.

Dogs at Green Central Knoll can result in fines for their owners of up to $150 a pop — which some consider to be a small price to pay for the coveted field.

Brennan said his wife has been slapped with the fine.

But he said Maria Hernandez Park, the borough’s only dog run, “is under-maintained and gross, there’s reports of rat poison being scattered.’’

Though dog owners claim they pick up after their pooches, a local resident who only gave her first name, Bianca, said her husband is a coach for the Brooklyn Bombers youth team there — and one of the players’ parents has to come to clean the field of feces with a garbage bag at least twice a week.

Kids as young as 6 are “terrified” of dogs after a young player was bitten at Thomas Boyland Park in Brooklyn this past spring, she said.

Yet they are now forced to play side-by-side with pooches at Green Central Knoll — and regularly come home with urine-soaked backpacks and filthy cleats, Bianca said.

“It’s painful to see,’’ she said.

Other youth sports groups, such as a girls’ softball team, have stopped using the field entirely because of the illicit dog-walkers..

“When I hear kids say, ‘I’m unable to play right away,’ it’s not a good thing,” said Bushwick native and radio personality DJ Carlito, 42, who organized Saturday protest event.

“We’re losing kids to the streets,” he said. “Subway surfing, shootings, stabbings.

“The little things that we have that can keep them off the streets are being taken away from them because people want to be immature and run their dogs.”

Councilwoman Jen Gutierrez told The Post last month that her office is in “active” talks with the Parks Department to create a Green Central Knoll dog run at the site or for “strengthening the turf to better withstand use,” which dog owners such as Brennan support.

But Bushwick Sports and Recreation Executive Director Pablo Rivera slammed the thought of giving up any part of the cherished field over to the dogs.

“We’re not giving them half of this park, no way,” added Community Board Chair Robert Camacho, 65.

“We’re going to die in this park.

A Parks rep said the agency plans to repair the torn-through fence in the meantime, and enforcement officers will continue to perform daily patrols to “ensure that patrons are following all park rules.”

Gutierrez said she is still “waiting on a clear answer from Parks about strengthening the perimeter gate.”

Some community board members, such as Camacho, stressed the need for wrought-iron fencing that can’t be ripped open.

“We also welcome and encourage the creation of a Friends of Green Central Knoll group, which could be a great way to bring community voices together and partner with Parks,” Gutierrez said.

Camacho stressed the problem may not be confined to just the park anymore.

Bold dog owners have similarly started cutting holes in the fence at the soccer field at Maria Hernandez Park, where there is already an existing dog run, about two weeks ago, he said.

“It’s all about the dogs,” Camacho sighed, “and not enough about the kids.”