Fireworks and dog poo - WWYD?

[Sewbean]

We had some fireworks in our garden last night. Saturday before Bonfire Night, 6.45pm, lasted not much more than 5 minutes, we told immediate neighbours and someone further along the road we know has dogs.

A woman I didn't recognise came to our door to complain. Said we were the most selfish people she had ever met and we would rot in hell for distressing her dog. Her exact words.

This morning we were all out of the house, car was away. Came home to find a dog poo in the middle of our front path, right in front of the doorstep.

Complaining woman must not have noticed the CCTV camera our neighbour recently installed which covers the joint part of our path nearest the pavement. Clearly shows her walking in the gate with a full dog poo bag and walking out and putting something small in the bin by the gate.

Now I get fireworks split opinion, but until they are illegal we are not doing anything wrong, we were not outrageous at all as these things go. I'm not going to apologise for our fireworks. But she's obviously been upset and I am assuming she feels better now she has evened the score so I want to just let it go. DH however is upset and wants to speak to her. We don't know which house she lives in but could find out easily enough I suppose.
I don't want a massive neighbourhood dispute over something that took us 30 seconds to clear up (luckily it was solid).

WWYD? Ignore or 'have a chat' and drag it on?

I vote ignore, DH unfortunately votes the opposite.

Isn't that dog fouling, how revolting, can you call the council dog department or environmental health for their advice and log it with your local police. If anything else happens in the future she could do something worse.

I would be quite happy to call the police if I had video evidence of someone putting shite on my path. If you plan to do that then keep it off social media.

If not, post it on your local page and innocently ask if anyone recognises the person in the video - people will and they will also share it.

Don't let your husband speak to her, don't speak to her yourself either. She isn't approachable. Nobody that puts shite on your path is going to be approachable.

also gather the shit (or other shit, it doesn't have to be the same shit) and pop it through her letterbox

Report her and hand over the cctv as evidence.
Don’t approach her yourself.

I would also post it on social media EVERYWHERE asking who she is ( to make sure all her neighbours see) then report her.
I bet her neighbours have problems with her too, it will certainly make her think twice!!!

Report her. I would. The 'my dog is distressed' brigade need to grow some. Many families who have fireworks have dogs as well and the dogs aren't bothered. Pointers and retrievers on a shoot don't turn into gibbering wrecks when they are surrounded by gunshot.

You've got the CCTV evidence. When a similar thing happened where I live the footage was put on the local Facebook page. The woman with the perma-shitting dog was so embarrassed as all her friends had seen it that she asked for it to be taken down (which it was) and there was never a problem with her again.

Pointers and retrievers on a shoot don't turn into gibbering wrecks when they are surrounded by gunshot.

That's a pretty ignorant statement. There are many retrievers and posters who are wrecks during firework season.

I want to see this footage!!🤣🙈

@Wheat2Harvest
You sound as ignorant as dog-poo woman

Many families who have fireworks have dogs as well and the dogs aren't bothered. Pointers and retrievers on a shoot don't turn into gibbering wrecks when they are surrounded by gunshot.

Noise phobias are increasingly common in dogs, and pointers, retrievers and other working dogs are trained to sound from a young age - the ones that do turn into gibbering wrecks end up rehomed as pets!

A dog with a noise phobia is horrendously distressed and you sound utterly unempathetic.

OP, regardless of how distressed the dog was, her behaviour is not ok and you’d be well within your rights to report her.

pointers even. But I'm sure some posters are wrecks as well.

@Wheat2Harvest what an uneducated and ignorant thing to say. Does it ever cross your mind that not all animals are the same, some are traumatised rescues.
Someone local to us has lost their 16 week old puppy to a heart attack tonight directly caused by fireworks.

Maybe the owner should ‘grow a pair’?

Reporter her who the fuck does she think she it dropping shit on your path should go and give it back to her and tell her you have cctv and will be reporting it.

This is the type of thing I fantasise about doing to the families who let off fireworks every motherfucking night from the week before Halloween to the week after but I’d never actually do it.

DEFINITELY have a quiet word; “look, I’m sorry your dogs were scared and we must have missed your house when we were telling neighbours our plans. But we have CCTV footage of you dumping dog crap on our drive, can you explain how that’s ok?”

Excuse the scatalogical theme but she’ll shit herself and you retain integrity.

Personally I'd share the footage on local Facebook groups. If you want to compromise, you could just post to say you want the perpetrator to come round and apologise, and if they don't you'll have to share the footage everywhere to help identify them.

I've got horses, and several neighbours back on to our fields, and as you'd expect some neighbours and other local people have firework displays in their garden. Plus the big village display. The only time I've ever resented it was the occasion some old neighbours decided to use one of my fields. And even then I didn't wheelbarrow round shit to their driveway. I made my point there and then. Otherwise, it's just something you have to deal with.

Really, most people would take this further? The poo is now in the bin so there's no taking it round or anything dramatic.

I honestly just want to leave it, I don't want it to escalate and her to now do something back to us. That's just stupid.

I don't know who she is or where she lives, I can't think I've even really noticed her walking her dog or anything.

DH is away for work all next week so I'm just going to leave it. She's made her pathetic point, I don't want to give her any more attention. If dh was at home I think he'd be trying to track her down.

I honestly just want to leave it, I don't want it to escalate and her to now do something back to us. That's just stupid

In truth this is the best way forward. You know why she did it. No need to take it further.

Just act if you end up with another little deposit again though.

As someone who spent yesterday evening under a blanket with 3 terrified animals, I understand her frustration but FFS be British and complain in the comfort of your own home, don't fling shit at someone's house!

Report it and show the police the footage. We had batshit crazy neighbours for a long time and when they were eventually caught doing something on camera my other neighbours took the footage to the police and the guy was cautioned. It was a minor thing we had footage of but it was theft (and was part of an ongoing campaign against all the occupants of our terrace), and the police were very pleased to act because it was an easy win!

I own a dog who is petrified of fireworks and we just get over it for the 2 weekends of the year they go off, it’s not the nicest seeing her distressed and we often end up with a few sleepless nights but my god I would never knock my neighbours doors and complain that they’re doing something they enjoy, especially with children let alone put dog poo on their doorstep! What unusual behaviour!

What she did is utterly hideous and disgusting and there is nothing that justifies it.

However I do wish people would think twice before letting off fireworks. Personally I think they should be banned. It's not just pets that find them distressing, some people with dementia or mental health issues also can be distressed by them not to mention livestock. A farmer I know has had cows impale themselves on fencing after being spooked by fireworks on Friday night. He has lost several valuable cows as well as their unborn calves. Why should he have to pay the price for a few selfish idiots wanting a few minutes fun? And why should the animals suffer?

@compulsiveliar2019

Perfectly said.

I read so many stories on here of crazy neighbour disputes, I really don't want to get entangled in one of my own.

Hopefully DH won't meet her walking her dog when he's getting in his taxi to the airport tomorrow morning and it will all be forgotten about by the time he gets home on Friday.

Once it goes in it's completely smushed and very difficult to manoeuvre out

Maybe try feeding raw! My lot have nice solid poos and I could easily tip it back out.

@Lulualla
Don't let your husband speak to her! Can you imagine the story she will spin from a man approaching her and shouting at her and threatening her etc. He could open himself up to all sorts of accusations.
Are you taking creative writing lessons? Just stop making things up. Stop being so dramatic. No where has op said that her DH will be shouting and threatening.

@Butterisbest

Read what I typed again.
"Can you imagine the sorts of stories she will spin about a man..... etc".

The woman has shown she's a nasty person. If the husband speaks to her, I'd bet that she will then spin a story that he attacked/threatened/harassed etc. It opens him up to accusations. I didn't say he was going to do those things, I said that she may then make a report accusing him of those things.

And your post was really quite cheeky; all because you don't understand? Perhaps you should take some reading comprehension classes. Everyone else understood what I was saying.