So much dog poo - what can be done?

[AntiDogPooBrigade]

Fines aren't working. Dog wardens are nowhere to be seen. Increase in dogs has meant a huge increase in the amount of poo on our pavements and in our parks. I am beyond fed up of it.

We need to do something. But what?

And before the dog people pile on saying it's only the minority, it's only a few, they've never seen dog poo on the pavement, I attach EIGHT photos from this morning alone, that I took on a small stretch of road where my DC go to school. I have reported this street to the council, as it is prolific here, and they cleaned it on Friday. So all this poo is fresh from sometime after Friday afternoon, to now. And it is not just one dog.

I've marked them all as sensitive photos as I appreciate you might not want to see.

I appreciate there has been some effort to scrape up one of these examples, but it has left us with a long stretch of shit, that will still get picked up on our kids' shoes, traipsed in to school, they sit on the floor in assembly with their hands on the floor too. It is a hazard, and I am sick of it.

It’s the same in my area and it was the same in the last town I lived in. It’s always slap bang in the middle of the pavement on my way to the high local street.

I don’t know what can be done about it. I know it used to be a frequent topic of conversation on the local Facebook pages but nothing changes.

I don’t know the answer, bins, lots of bins would help.
We live near a wood which is popular with dog walkers. Last week we had two full poo bags in our garden and one left on the wall so obviously whoever it is has picked up after their dog but can’t be arsed to carry it home.

Bins don't help
Free poo bags around the town doesn't help

I vote for all dogs to be registered, the owner pays for a DNA test at the time and then all poo can be sent for DNA testing and huge fines handed out

More bloody bins is what we need.

There are bins galore here (also an eyesore, imo). We clearly have a dog people problem. They just don't care.

I'd like that too. I think owners need to pay a large licence, and it pays for extra pavement cleaning, and dog wardens. I have never seen a dog warden (certainly not that I know of, not in uniform).

It’s a huge problem and I think it does need to be addressed. There was something on Radio 4 about it the other day.

Dog ownership has skyrocketed and unfortunately there are too many dog owners who really don’t care. Where I live in London the footpaths are literally smeared with dog poo. Some really huge ones. It’s vile.

i recently visited family in another country and spotted one dog poo the whole time I was there.

I don't know what could be done about it but I completely agree with you. It's fucking disgusting. For the owners that leave it, if you didn't want to clean up shit, don't get a dog in the first place 🤷😡

That's so awful that they did that. I have had a dog poo bagged and put in my paper recycling box. WTF!

I think part of the problem is that people don't report it when they should. Every other person has a ring doorbell now, let's actually use them?

My security camera captured a woman letting her dog shit on my drive and walk off. When I asked online for help identifying her to report her, I was told to mind my own business and that I was a keyboard warrior, and how dare I try and ruin her day!!!

I sent the footage to the Council and they tracked her down and fined her. She had the audacity to knock on my door and berate me for removing the shit because apparently she was coming back to remove it 😂. It was there for hours.

Most of us do care, it's the shitty dog owners who don't.

Every dog owner should have to pay to have their dog's DNA sampled and stored on a data base. Then every single turd can be traced back to a culprit. And no bullshit about oh it's my son's dog. Every dog must have a registered holder and if the holder later denies responsibility the dog is destroyed.

Where we live during the day, pavements are good and clear when we walk our dog, but first thing in the morning, like the school run, I can only presume people who walk their dogs in the dark, just cannot be bothered to pick it up. I have to put my torch on my phone on to check I’ve picked it all up. I don’t know what the answer is, fines don’t work as there’s no one about to implement it. I agree more bins would help, we’ve lost a few in our village.

I think we need to start with making it illegal to let dogs even crap on the pavement in the first place. WHY was this ever deemed ok? Paths should be off-limits too. Dogs need to be trained to go in their own gardens only, or a (paid for by a dog licence scheme) designated dog park. Even when people do pick it up, there are always bits left behind.

I disagree that most of you care, judging by how prolific of a problem it is.

I am SO glad she got fined. Well done.

I have reported all the above to my council, as I did the previous week and it did get cleared away, but by Monday morning school run, there's a load more. Attitudes must change, and we need to clamp down hard on this problem.

It's disgusting, and I'm a dog owner. I always pick up after mine. I've noticed here that it's worse in the winter as some people think if their dog does it under cover of darkness they don't have to pick it up. I've also noticed it's blokes with big dogs ( often running loose) who don't pick up. Dirty bastards.

Hi OP - I don't disagree that some of this is disgusting irresponsible dog owners, but just an FYI when I had a similar meltdown about a road near us it turned out to be a lot of fox poo. They can look surprisingly similar - does that area have a lot of rubbish too/issues with bin raiding?

And don't get me started on cat sht, that's everywhere as well, irresponsible people getting too many cats and not getting them neutered, plus shtting in other people's gardens. I'd say there's more of that about than dog sh*t.

I swerved a pile of freshly excreted dog shit this morning taking my son to school. I am fucking sick of it. It's in the same places around here which indicates it's the same people on the same walks with the same mutts. I'd like to shove their faces in it.

Dog licences with compulsory DNA testing. It's high time dog owners had to pay a tax to cover the cost of their dogs to the public and the cost of policing the massive amount of crap dog owners leave around (and I say that as a dog owner).

I am 100% certain it is not fox poo. You can tell the difference. Well, I can. It's also not cats.

No big issues with street rubbish/bins, no. It's a popular area for dogs, they are everywhere here.

Completely agree.

I do think cats are an issue too, but round here, it's definitely dogs that are the main menace.

I don't have cats, but there are three cats who appear in my garden (I know where one lives, but not the other two), but I have actually never seen any cat poo in my garden.

I did find a fox poo by my front porch mat once, but have been quite lucky with the cats. But dogs, argh.