Disgusting dog poo, busy seaside town, owner made it worse by pouring water!

[Saniflo33]

I'm just coming to the end of my holiday in a popular seaside town. Today I was walking through the centre when I saw a couple with a dog picking up most (but not all) of a disgusting sticky dog shit, right in the middle of one of the busiest pedestrianised streets, lots of people and kids walking around, buying ice cream etc.

There was quite a large sticky mess remaining in the street, so the woman half heartedly poured her water bottle over it. This did nothing to dislodge the mess, it just created a brown river of poo that snaked over half the street. They then walked away laughing.
Within 30 seconds, scores of people were unknowingly walking through the shit.

When I walked back an hour later it was almost totally gone, obviously stuck to the shoes of 100+ tourists.
I'm not a dog owner, but I just couldn't leave something like that in such a busy area.
It's also made me wary seeing how quickly all trace of it disappeared. How often have I walked through smears of dog shit without knowing it?
Can't owners feed their dogs special food to make their poo less disgusting?

i saw someone ingeniously putting sand on a sticky poo beside the beach.

at least they tried with the water.

dont forget there is human poo in the sea anyway

It's not up to anyone else but the dog owner to think of "suggestions".

IMO when you get an animal, it's your moral responsibility (though not always legal responsibility) to ensure that nobody else's life is made even shittier for the sake of your pet-owning pleasure. Just throwing up your hands and saying "Well what do YOU suggest, huh?" when your dog barks all day/your cat digs up all your neighbour's seedlings/your dog deposits squidgy crap on the pavement/whatever is a total dick move.

I don't give a shit how you clean up your dog's diarrhoea; you took on that problem when you took on the dog.

The people saying how "this is getting so much worse" were clearly not around in the 1970s.

I remember when picking up after your dog became "a thing". Like almost every social change it originated in the US, probably California. There were TV news items about it. How everybody laughed at the idea of these stupid Americans bending down to pick up dog shit in a bag.

(I have some good stories about smoking too.)

it was round about the time we got our ddog @ 1993, or rationally that could be the first time i heard about it!

Absolutely. Also, dogs in the 70’s were literally allowed to wander out and about by themselves. Just dogs roaming the streets. Many a time when I was little I would be playing out on the streets and take a dog home to my mum asking if I could keep it. And no rules on dogs crapping everywhere and anywhere. No-one picked up after their dog. Unbelievable when you think about it.

I’ve just started walking someone else’s puppy. I’m really bothered about leaving traces of mess, it’s gross and unhygienic. I carry antibacterial wipes but that isn’t always enough. There is, or used to be, a spray that neutralises remnants and I’d love to know if it’s available still. As a non dog owner but dog walker I am astonished how often some dog walkers try to get away with not clearing up. I watched one, last winter in the dark, try to hang back as I was walking behind, clearly wanting me to overtake so her dogs could mess. That was a game of cat and mouse. Another got offended when I pointed out her dog had messed (yards from a poo bin) and protested that she’d “covered it up”, as though camouflaging cr@p and not clearing it is somehow commendable.

My dog rarely poos in my garden he saves it for walks, always on grass though.

This thread is ridiculous, sounds like the family involved did their best, not many people carry a jet wash and disinfectant in their back pocket. And as you've said it was all gone a few hours later no harm done

They rarely do. I remember back in 2015 so was before the explosion of “pandemic dogs” I saw this father out with his primary school aged kids and their huge dog crapped all over the street in allerton, Liverpool. They didn’t lift a finger to remove any of it. If I hadn’t seen it happen I’d have thought it may be horses as it was that massive 😳

I know it’s gross Op. and we need to have some dog free outside areas IMO. Certain beaches, parks etc. even if only a minority of them there does need to be some. I saw this in the States a lot more.

I’m with the pp who said and that’s why I do outdoor shoes off on my house. I have shoe coverings for anyone not wanting to remove their shoes.

"I watched one, last winter in the dark, try to hang back as I was walking behind, clearly wanting me to overtake so her dogs could mess"

Exactly, not everyone clears up after their dog, it's amazing how many flights from Gatwick are overhead when someone's dog is crapping and the owner has no intention of clearing, it's just not happening, they'd rather gaze at the skies !
I confronted one owner who was letting his dog mess while young children were walking to school, he just walked off with me shouting out after him.

Maybe they did. Maybe they came back with some more water and washed it away and that's why it wasn't there when you came back. This happened to some friends of mine so they nipped into a shop and got some more water. There's not much you can do to stop diarrhoea.

I was in St Ives yesterday and didn’t see a single piece of dog shit <disappointed now>
🤷‍♀️

True.

My dog loved it in St Ives yesterday. She had a train ride, a walk on the beach, she had my lotus biscuit while I drank my coffee, we went in some shops, we shared a sausage roll, got back in the car and went to another beach. We’re here on holiday, she’s having a great time. I’m hardly going to leave her in the caravan. She’s had a whole day walking today with no town visit you’ll be glad to know. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, we might go to Falmouth. She’ll probably shit on the pavement at some point but I’ll bag it and bin it.

Agreed, it's not like they could pull out a jet wash there and then.

@MiaFeysImprobableBosom with respect, you are being ridiculous. Dogs exist. Cats exist. Birds that shit all over your windows exist. There is no way to avoid certain things and if you want to live in a society where others people's choices will occasionally inconvenience you I think you need to be a little more tolerant. For your own wellbeing.

The owners did all they reasonably could to clear up the mess. If they'd ignored it and walked on by then of course it would be unreasonable and immoral. But that's not what happened. Unclench.

Not sure what else they could’ve done.

In this scenario I really don’t know what else the dog owners were supposed to do? The OP says ‘try harder’ but aside from producing a scrubbing brush, fairy liquid and a couple buckets of water, how on earth were they meant to get rid of every last bit?? Should they have cordoned off the area with some traffic cones and hazardous tape?

Most dog owners would use a pooh bag (or two or three) to get as much up as possible. She was probably thinking the water could help.

In that busy town centre, birds will pooh, and foxes, grown men will pee when they come out the pub, teenagers might spit, smokers might drop ash. We can’t live in this perfectly sterile world.

Yes, there were loads of dogs just cutting about the place in the 70s. I remember when my sister and I were out playing there was a particular wee brown dog that used to appear and spend the day with us on our various shenanigans. Then he would bugger off wherever he went for the night.

There was dog shit all over the bloody place back then!

Dogs shouldn’t be allowed on narrow streets.

I’ve just got home from north Devon. Loads of dogs but I didn’t see any poo. It’s pretty rare round here to these days. Much less than when I was growing up.

But you didn't warn anyone.... just watched

Then returned to have another look!

I’ve seen a similar situation recently where someone got a load of sand from the beach and pit that on the runny poo she couldn’t clear up. That did a good job of soaking it up then she scraped up the shitty sand. Very affective and admirable amount of effort from the owner.

Maybe walk the dog in a more suitable area rather than letting it shit in a busy shopping centre

Where did op say it was in a 'busy shopping centre'??

Where are the wardens

Wardens? What are they??