Dog Poo on the walk to school is getting ridiculous!

[OhJustPassTheCake]

AIBU to want to personally "police" the dog walkers in our area to make them pick up poo on the goddamn PATH TO SCHOOL!!!???

We live in a very child friendly area, lots of playgrounds and green spaces but the path to school runs right along a playing field (which clearly states that dogs should be kept on leads at all times, but this is massively ignored). Dog walkers actually congregate on the playing field and there is literally dog sh** everywhere, we have to dodge it every single morning.

There is an alternative way to school but it involves roads, which the playing field way doesn't, plus, I don't see why we shouldn't take our chosen way to school just because of in-considerate dog owners!

Any advice welcome on what we could do about this?? I contemplated some bright coloured chalk drawn around all the sh** on the paths to draw attention to it but also to guilt owners into picking it up, but can't say I'm keen on getting close enough to draw around it!

[Walkerbean16]

Ring the council and ask them to clean it up?

[Wolfiefan]

Do you have a neighbourhood warden type person?
It's grim. I'm a dog owner. I pick up. Whether I'm at the park, by the school or in a field. I pick up. Why should someone get shit on their pram wheels or traipse it through the house because I choose to have a dog as a pet. They ABU!

[MimsyFluff]

Spray paint them

[OhJustPassTheCake]

have reported it to the council, and have posted on our school mum FB page the link so others can do the same xx

[OhJustPassTheCake]

@walkerbean - I have done this, but even if they clean it up once, it could all be back again a few days later, I'm looking for a longer term solution but fear there isn't one :(

[ItsOnlyJustMe]

No idea what you can do but I sympathise. I have the same problem. I pass through a park dropping DDs off at (play)school.

This morning someone had left a massive dog turd right in front of the park gate. Obviously, it had gotten stepped in and spread around. I just about could navigate through without getting it on me, but for my three-year-old in her scooter and the four-year-old on her bike didn't have a chance. I ended up having to lift them and their vehicles through.

Eight times I had to navigate through that mess today.

[CigarsofthePharoahs]

The local newsletter thing the council send round had a gross statistic in it.
Volunteers in the local park had collected 400 dog turds in one month. 400!
There seems to be a plague of it where I live too. The park at the back of DS's school has lots and the roads we walk down to get to school seem to have new offerings appearing almost daily.
I'd guess the vast majority are down to a few people who never clear up. Bloody disgusting.

[Rollonbedtime7pm]

YANBU - it's just so disgusting!

It was the same near us last week, every 10 paces on the school/preschool run there was a pile of it. Someone had let their dog do a bloody huge dump smack in the middle of the pavement right outside our house! I'll just come and tip my baby's nappy all over your bloody driveway shall I?!

Who do you tell at the council?

[purplefizz26]

YANBU

Dog owners who don't clear it up are dirty horrible lazy scum bags. There is no excuse whatsoever for it.

Keep on at the council, and of course if you witness anybody walking away without clearing up bloody tell them!

[Wolfiefan]

Someone needs to catch them at it. ID a couple of culprits and name and shame. Can't they be fined?

[MissCalamity]

I was thinking the exact same thing on the school run today. I walk through an industrial estate & it's bad enough walking on the little bit of pavement that's left after the massive lorries & cars park up on it, then having to dodge the crap with the pushchair every 6 feet.
Then on the way home shouting at DS to "watch the poo" as he races ahead.
Think I'll have a look on my council's website as well, really sick of it.

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

OP,

You may be interested in this thread: not the same situation, but definitely under the umbrella, and good to know so many other MNers are equally hacked off.

(You need that OP's Miss Marple-like neighbour on your team, to track down the repeat offenders!).

This link has a few ideas about what can be done about public nuisance dog owners (don't see why the dogs themselves should take the rap). I quite like the sarcastic flags idea.

100% agree with you: it's vile, as anyone who's had to try removing dog shit from buggy wheels/ toddler shoe treads etc. knows only too well

[OhJustPassTheCake]

For others having trouble in their area - it was fairly easy to report on our council website, I just googled it and you can pin point the problem location on a map. Still, there are fresh turds every day so a clean up wouldn't help the problem for long :(

[megletthesecond]

Yanbu. I have to email the council every so often to get them to clear it up.

It's worse in the winter. Presumably because irresponsible after dark dog walkers can't be seen not picking it up.

[IRegretNothing]

We have that on our school run. I try not to think about it too much as quite clearly several children are stepping it it to/from school. My brain tjen goes into.overdrive thinking, "those kids are going to step that through the school and on the carpets...where they are expected to sit on at various times throughout the day."
Fucking grim.
Dd classroom has had to be evacuated and thoroughly cleaned after children stepped a substantial amount of mess through the school.

I honestly thought I was the only one pedantic enough to chase after my kids shouting, "look out for poo!!" I get weird looks when I do that. I see so many parents just letting their kids step on it without a care in the world. Either they don't see or they don't care. Eugh.

I have a doo poo map in my head of our school route. I give them descriptions, ie giant dog turd, orange-coloured one, vegetable-y poo, smeared poo, poo on the corner. Wish I could turn my brain off but I hate the school run because of it.

[IRegretNothing]

I wonder if the council get repeated reports they will put some things in place. Last place I lived had a community group that dealt with all sorts and they had groups of poo 'taggers' who sprayed poo and a small radius around the poo with white spray paint to make it easily visible. They also distributed leaflets thru doors and put a notice in the community newsletter etc. It helped as people realisd others were keeping their eyes out and would report if necessary.

[trevortrevorslattery]

I know of someone who's used chalk spray paint. It's biodegradable so will eventually wash away but it highlights the issue without getting too close.
I think the idea was to make it visible and get people talking about it and effectively shame the poo-leavers without having to catch them at it and confront them.
I don't know how successful it was but at least the chalk spray means you can mark the poo from a distance. I think the council gave her a grant for tins of spray paint but I could have that wrong.

[IRegretNothing]

Xpost trevor! Dunno if ours was chalk, the spray is still there after a year! I wondered if eventually the entire pavement would be white before long!!

[PatMullins]

OP we must live in the same place. It's getting unbearable.

[Gramgram]

Same problem in this area too. Then there are those owners that bag the poo and then lauch the bag into the nearest tree where it dangles. Would love to know why dog owners think these toxic decorations enhance the tree.

[megletthesecond]

iregret I'm on permanent poo watch too. "Don't step on the edge! Step in the MIDDLE OF THE PATH!". I don't want it in the kids school and I certainly don't want to be cleaning shoes.

I'm so tempted to get chalk paint. I did have a tizz and use flour on poo at the local park once.

[Janey50]

OP this is awful. We have a similar problem round our way at the moment. It's not normally so bad,but when I picked my DGD up from school 2 days ago,I seemed to be going through an assault course of dog turds. There must have been at least 10 lots,although I think about 5 of them were from the same one,as it was erm,runny and smeared everywhere along a 100 yard stretch. Sorry for the tmi. But it was truly disgusting. The woman who was several yards in front of me ran straight through a load of it with her pushchair. I called out to tell her but she was racing off so quick she didn't hear me. I am going to contact our council's environmental dept tomorrow, perhaps you should do the same!

[ItsOnlyJustMe]

Oh yes, the people who pick up, and then dump the bag somewhere. That's even worse, because that way it pretty much stays forever. At least when just left it'll eventually wash away.

[HainaultViaNewburyPark]

It is terrible here at the moment (I've really noticed it in the last month or so). The pavement at the bottom of our road is so bad that DH and I have taken to referring to it as 'Dog Turd Alley' - fresh poo pretty much every day. Yuck. With the added hazard of crap streetlighting, so you have to attempt to navigate past it in the dark every evening without being able to see what you might be stepping in.