to think that the keeping of dogs for domestic purposes should be banned.

[AKMD]

That?s it really. I am sick to death of having to watch my feet to make sure I don?t accidentally tread in dog muck left to steam by some selfish, lazy dog owner. I resent not being able to take 2yo DS to the park directly opposite my house because it?s used as a dog exercise ground and you can?t play toddler football without the ball and toddler falling into said dog muck. I hate that every time we go to the slightly nicer park there?s at least one dog without a lead who decides to come and sniff DS and that while he backs away the owner stands there laughing that ?he?s only being friendly?. I loathe and detest the particularly ?friendly? dogs who lick DS while I drag him away, probably just after eating another dog?s poo or a dead rat or some other disgusting thing they just found. I have personally seen the scars left on a young child by a ?friendly? dog turning savage and ripping the toddler?s cheek off. The problem of people getting bored of their dogs and dumping them in rescue centres is sickening. The stories of dogs being bred to fight, being neglected, being bred for ?beauty? despite the ?beautiful? characteristics causing the animals pain and suffering are beyond belief.

IMO domestic dog owners as a general class have proved that they are irresponsible and selfish. Fear of treading in dog poo on a pavement or in a park is common to everyone and I am so, so sick of people blaming it on a tiny minority. Domestic dog owners can?t be trusted to be responsible so they shouldn?t have them, end of. People should only be allowed to keep dogs for working purposes ? guide dogs, sniffer dogs, police dogs, sheep dogs etc. - if they are licensed.

AIBU?

Oh, I wondered when some bright spark would come along with a wildly intelligent remark about Staffordshires and the connection between them ripping a toy to pieces and putting a child at risk of the same, NiceCupOfTea. Clearly I'll have to wait a bit longer.

MN bingo!

YABU. It's irresponsible owners that you have a problem with. Saying that nobody should be allowed to keep dogs because some dog owners are irresponsible is like saying nobody should be allowed to have children because some people are crap parents.

YANBU. I wish I could use our local park for my dc to run about in. We dont have a garden and live in the city so it would be nice for them to be able to play on the grass. Unfortunately it is covered in dog mess, seriously thick with it. No children play there, just fecking dogs and their disgusting selfish owners.

Oh, well, the trouble is we all think things like this at times, don't we? I mean I often think that people should be banned from having children unless they can prove they're capable of bringing them up, but at the same time I don't really think that. Or at least, I kind of wish it was possible, but it's not possible.

Same with dogs, really. Plenty of responsible dog owners around, but plenty of irresponsible ones too. Perhaps they should make potential dog owners sit a test first or something, as you do before you're allowed to drive a car.

My local park isn't covered in dog shit.

It's covered in fag ends, fast food wrappers and even worse BROKEN BOTTLES.

Loads of kids and teens use the park. So obviously it's one, the other or both.

I'd say ban them all

Tbh I wish there were designated areas just for dogs. Why should I put my dog on a lead when I purposely go to the far end, away from the playground and football pitch to give my nutty springer a good run out, yet precious wants to play where I'm standing

Suppose someone staked out a commonly fouled area, waited for an owner to leave the 5hit there, followed them home, and then posted it back to its righful owner.

Would there really be anything wrong with that?

The Stalky Phantom Poo Poster? Yeah that might have legs.

If you're sending it back to the 'owner' you might want to ring the doorbell to let the owner of the owner know too.

I think perhaps anybody who actually believes unknown dogs are a major risk to children, either for reasons of hygiene or attack should seek therapy.

There is no justification for letting your dog poo in a public place and then not cleaning it up, just as there is no justification for leaving broken glass in public places.

But people need to keep a sense of perspective about the likelihood of being injured by a dog or its associated diseases/parasites if you don't live with one.

"It's covered in fag ends, fast food wrappers and even worse BROKEN BOTTLES.!"

Yes, you see I have a problem with seeing dogs as the main agents of evil when the problems around here we are all human in origin. I took the dog out for a walk one day and forgot my poo bags. It took me about 2 milliseconds to find a discarded carrier bag that I could use instead. In fact I was spoilt for choice Along with the tin cans, chip papers, Macdonald wrappers, Costa coffee cups ...... you get the picture. There is dog poo but not really that much. And though it's disgusting it does at least biodegrade unlike all the plastic that people leave about the place. I guess that tends to colour my view of the 'problem' somewhat.

And being generally quite happy to be around dogs, the other aspect that usually gets aired - dogs are terrifying slavering beasts intent on rending toddlers limb from limb - fails to strike a chord with me either.

I am prepared to accept that in certain places, probably where there is a higher population density (both canine and human) there are major poo problems. And a small proportion of dogs are a threat. But I'd hazard a guess that isn't the case in most places or with even a small majority of dogs.

So it comes down to the people who are scared of, or dislike dogs and those who live in areas where dog shit is a major problem, wanting to ban all dogs being kept as domestic pets. In which case I think my list of Horrible THings I Want Banned is just as valid.

Gosh, more than one person on this thread has branded all dog owners 'selfish', and even 'disgusting'.

I think all hysterical sweeping statements should have to be licensed (and their owners muzzled).

There's places near me where it's a near certainty one of the little ones will step in some dog shit.

Telling me the chances of my child being blinded are small doesn't make me any happier about it.

We need the Stalky Phantom Poo Poster thing to go viral. Make the ba5tards think twice, I say.

Well it makes me happier. If there was a 99% chance that you were going to catch toxicara from going to the park I would be terrified.

YABU. Sounds like you're mixing with a dodgy lot of chavs dog owners. Move?

Toxoplasmosis is in cat shit too

And no one I know lifts cat shit.

And cats bury their shit in flower beds and sandpits.

Damn but it irritates the hell out of me when people post the "blinded by dog shit" line as if dogs are the only pets to have toxoplasmosis.

SeaHouses Fri 11-May-12 16:43:49
Well it makes me happier. If there was a 99% chance that you were going to catch toxicara from going to the park I would be terrified.

Well there's a 0% chance you'll catch it from me, so presumably if I came and did a shit on your lawn you'd be esctatic about it.

YABVVU

Let me tell you something interesting.

All horses have to have a passport by law, this is to ensure that they don’t inadvertently end up in the human food chain and so that it can be identified as an individual. Also, any equine foal born after 1 July 2009 will have to be microchipped. You cannot buy, sell or travel a horse without one.

You would think that this would help in claiming horse ownership if it ever came to the horse either being stolen or there being an ownership dispute. It doesn’t, unbelievably, a horse passport is an identification document and doesn’t in itself prove ownership.

You would think that by an animal having a passport, it would help the industry be more organised and able to crack down on The Minority. It doesn’t. You still get dealers selling horses that don’t match their passports, don’t have passports, don’t match their microchip, get sent to slaughter on a fake passport, get sold on to a new owner as a healthy horse when the poor thing is crippled and drugged up to the eyeballs.

It certainly doesn’t help when you have hundreds of different Passport Issuing Offices that you can get any old passport from, none of which match up to the National Equine Database which has over 1 million horses with UK passports, including a lost, stolen & missing horse register. Amazing isn’t it.

My point is, that however much you try to regulate things – dangerous dogs, illegal drivers, unscrupulous horse dealers, there are always those who slip right through the cracks and continue to behave just how they like. The problem with these sorts of thoughts and ideas is that they often haven’t been thought out properly and rarely work.

I am a responsible dog owner and a responsible horse owner. I am not apologising for having animals that enormously enrich my life, so ya boo sucks to you.

Actually toxoplasmosis is more common cats than dogs. My daughter has a dog and a constant supply of poo bags in her pocket when she takes him out.
But she has to go round her garden removing all the cat shit left by neighbours' cats.

Yesterday I had to 'finish off' and then bury yet another poor bird that the killer cat from next door had toyed with, tortured and then left to die.

Stinkyminkymoo Fri 11-May-12 17:00:16
Let me tell you something interesting...

I think you might have oversold what was to follow.

Well no, I wouldn't be ecstatic about it. There would be particular health risks associated with human faeces and also I'd be concerned for your mental health.

Is this meant to be an exercise in finding poor examples in analogical reasoning? Or do you just like talking about your own poo?

No, its simply that telling me the chances of my child being blinded are small doesn't make me any happier about it when I'm cleaning dog shit off their shoes.

You said it does make you happier about it.

Not. My. Idea. Of. Fun.

Oh stop moaning.

I think posters that start stupid threads like these should be banned.

Where I live there's deer poo and sheep poo. Let's ban them too.
And a bird shat on my head the other day. Ban Birds, that's what I say.

MrsBethel - do you check your flower beds for cat poo before you let your kids plant flowers or a sandpit for cat poo?

grahamtribe I too had my bingo dabbed at the ready for some detrimental staffy comments.

Full house

The sweeping generalisations really piss me off