Caveat: this is not a post against well-trained dog owners.
I have no axe to grind with dog owners per se, but with a certain number who are incapable of disposing of dog poo in both an environmentally friendly and socially acceptable way.
I have been privileged to enjoy an extended Xmas break and have taken the opportunity to go for a good walk every day. But wherever I roam the paths, byways, hedgerows, rivers and ditches, even railway crossings, are blighted by bags full of dog poo.
The worst offenders were a pile of some 10 bags, multicoloured, next to the gate of a railway crossing and another single bag hanging from a twig in a difficult to access hedge. The latter was a vile intrusion on an otherwise beautfiul, tranquil and unspoilt corner of the Dark Peak District in Northern England. It brought back the horror of finding no less than seven such bags thrown into my father's Cornish hedgerow (yes Odin has a residence in SW UK) which I narrowly missed spraying everywhere whilst cutting back his hedges in the autumn.
Dog fouling is not new, but what I fail to understand is that if a dog owner has such little regard for other members of the public, why does s/he feel the need to bag up the poo before leaving it behind.? What is the point? Why not just let the dog do its business on the ground and let it be? at least that way the poo stands a chance of being washed away and being 'absorbed' into the soil (and stepped in, thus aiding distribution and organic integration). It seems doubly insensitive when the bags clearly won't bio-degrade, simultaneously leaving an explosive time bomb of bacteria for some poor unsuspecting hiker (or hedge-cutter) to stumble upon. Who do they think is going to clear it up? Where's the sense of community responsibility, thought and care?
Today, on the SW coast path the majority of poo we came across was at least left honestly, out in the open; causing me some anxiety as to the state of my paw-tipped Nordic walking poles (how else does a Demi-god keep fit?!), but otherwise adding organic matter to the soil.
Posted on: 03 January 2019 by Kevin-W
Slightly off-topic, but this thread reminds me of a night out in Hampstead about 33/34 years ago. There used to be a bar on the High Street called the Dôme (note circumflex) that used to attract a lot of flash types on Friday and Saturday nights. One of them parked his sportscar, which had a white vinyl roof, outside the bar on Saturday and went in with a couple of stunnas.
I was in a nearby pub when someone came rushing in, shouting, "Hey! Everyone, you've got to see this!"
We all hurtled out, to see some bloke running away from the sportscar, hitching up his trousers as he fled. He had left a massive turd on top of that car's nice white vinyl roof.
I know it's disgusting and all that, but one has to admire the sheer cojones of some guy who can pull his pants down, squat on the roof of a car parked on a busy London street and curl one out - and then get away with it.
As far as I know, the perpetrator was never caught, nor could his motives for this outrageous act be determined.
Posted on: 03 January 2019 by JRHardee
I haven't had that problem, but I love the idea of painting the mess fluorescent pink!
Still scratching my head about the person who bagged one up and left it under my discarded Christmas tree, like that made it go away. Let's see if he comes back this year.
Posted on: 04 January 2019 by Mike Hughes
On a shared path? Horses, dog walkers, cyclists, families out walking, school kids etc.
Posted on: 04 January 2019 by Loki
Frigga, like Richard, remembers a time when even a fairly fresh dog turd could be simply kicked to one side, without fear of sticking, because of its firmness. What have we done to our dogs?
Posted on: 04 January 2019 by Alley Cat
Frigga, like Richard, remembers a time when even a fairly fresh dog turd could be simply kicked to one side, without fear of sticking, because of its firmness. What have we done to our dogs?
This is a very interesting observation from Richard and I can't remember when I last saw one of those chalky dog doings!
There were plenty of chunky dog doings to avoid as I walked into work this morning on the path below a local park.
Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Loki
Melissa Harrison of the Times (UK) had this to say yesterday on the subject of winter hedges and verges and the exposure of litter:
"It's the bagged poo that iritates me most, as a (responsible) dog owner. Why bag it up only to abandon it, or worse, hang it on a bush or fence? It makes no sense to me at all."
Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Richard Dane
I've thought about this and tried to put myself into the shoes of someone who does the "poop fruit" propagation round our way - tried to imagine what is their mindset and motivation. Closest I can get is to think it may well boil down to the fact that so often a dog will go when and where they have to go. You can't choose the timing or exact place and so, with the possibility of witnesses, and wanting to be seen to do the right thing - i.e. bagging up the poo - then that's what people do. That's the accepted protocol , and by doing so, you can pat yourself on the back for having done "the right thing". Of course, now you're carrying a bag of poo. A rather nasty inconvenience really and the next aim is to get rid of it as quickly as possible. However, now you can choose the time and the place. And hey, you've already done the right thing by bagging it, you're in credit. So tossing the bag in the bushes, well, Ok, so it's lazy, and you know it's wrong, but you're already one merit point up, so with that demerit, you're now back to evens again, so you don't have to feel bad.
Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Clive B
Yes, but you've now swapped poo on the ground where it will decompose naturally, to poo hanging in a plastic bag from a tree or bush where it takes several months before the bag decays sufficiently to allow the poo to fall to the ground, leaving the unsightly bag hanging for many more months until it is ripped by the wind and small strips of dried poo covered plastic are blown elsewhere.
If this were a Simon Mayo confession, you'd not be forgiven.
Posted on: 06 January 2019 by Richard Dane
Of course. There's no actual justification for it. If I were to be judgemental, I'd say it was just sheer laziness. But that's the best I could do trying to put myself into their shoes, in an attempt to reason why.
Posted on: 09 January 2019 by tonym
My wife and I came back to the UK for Xmas this year and spent some time near Derwent Water in the Lake District. It didn't really seem to matter where we walked we spotted these little poo baggies everywhere. Hanging on trees, on stone walls, in bushes .. it did seem odd that someone would go to the trouble of picking up their pets' discharges put it into a bag and yet leave it in the countryside. Made no sense ..
As someone who spends nearly half their time living in Keswick, on the shores of Derwent Water (should really be one word, but the swear filter doesn't like it...) I really do not recognise your description. Sure, you do see the occasional pile of poo that someone's not picked up, but I've yet to see any bags of the stuff hanging in trees. There are lots of dogs in Keswick, it's the most dog-friendly town in the UK, and there are lots of proper doggie-poo bins around. Amongst us dog owners it's a real crime to leave your dog poo around - most of us will pick up any we see on the paths, and dispose of it properly.
