A dog poop question - bag it or leave it? Who's worse in this instance?

[HeartsJandJ]

A week or so ago I was walking my dog along a footpath through some fields. It's a path used mainly by dog walkers, horse riders and cyclists so not exactly in huge general use.

In the middle of the path was a large pile of shite, next to it a poop bag under a stone. At the time I thought it was a good idea as, to me, it showed someone intended to come back and clear it up, presumably at the end of their walk.

Going along the same route today and it's still there. The bag can't have been placed by the original owner of the pooping dog, someone else must have put it there.

So my thought is that the bag leaver is worse in this instance as they have merely added a bit of litter to the original poop pile. Litter which will take a lot longer to degrade as well as using raw materials and energy to make in the first place.

AIBU to think this? Would anyone else leave a bag in the hope the original person would be shamed into picking it up?

No-one said it did madmouse.

I wish horse riders would use horse poo bags. We live in a village with lots of riding schools and ponies around and the riders cut through our road quite often. It can be like a slalom trying to drive round the stinky piles without getting poo all over your tyres. And no, I don't want to shovel it up to put on my petunias folks.

Plus I wish our neighbours would stop their cats crapping on my front lawn.

In bad mood because kept awake by two cats having a standoff at 3am under my bedroom window. Jeez, the howls. I finally got up and chucked a glass of water out the window in the hope I scored a direct hit as yelling at them did nothing.

Makes my blood boil!!!!

There is absolutely no defence for not cleaning your dog shit up. I can't believe anyone even tries to defend it. There are no excuses at all.

"I didn't have a bag with me?" well why not?
"I was running with my dog so I couldn't carry a bag of poo" Crap. Sorry no excuse, unless you're being chased by a tiger you don't HAVE to be running. Don't go running with your dog unless you're prepared to carry pooh at the same time.
"I kicked it into the grass verge" Well that's just totally discusting, what foul horrible filthy people.
"nobody else uses that path, its a rural area" No excuse- plenty of people use rural footpaths, why ruin nice places? Is it ok for me to leave my lunch wrappers when I go hiking in the Peak District because its quiet? No, and its not ok to leave shit there either.

"But I bag it up" So if you have a bag why aren't you taking it home? Plastic bags full of pooh, especially hanging from trees, fenceposts as if they're expecting someone else to clear it. is just as bad, and probably worse, something about the attitude.

If you don't like clearing up pooh why did you get a dog? Having a dog was your choice. If you're not prepared to clean it up then you shouldn't have got a dog.

Dog owners that don't clean up make me so angry I can't put it into words.

"People who leave their bags of poo at the side of the path to collect on their way back, would you be happy for me to leave my empty coke can in the same way to collect on the way back?
Or bagged up dirty nappy if I had to stop and change the baby near the start of the route? What if everyone follows your lead with things that are a nuisance to carry about."

Yes. Provided you are going to pick it up of course. Of course a coke can isn't prone to splitting open and leaking shit in your bag, neither is a dirty nappy for that matter. Personally, I don't care what someone thinks - I've picked the poo up and on a long walk, in the country, I leave the bag off the beaten track to pick up later. On a town or park walk I shove it in a bin. If the council has bothered to provide them.

Oh, and biodegradable bags don't degrade very quickly at all.

Can you explain why exactly you are against someone bagging up pooh at the start of a walk, leaving it and picking it up at the end of a walk?

What on earth is there to object to about that?

What I have against it is that I cannot see the difference between the bag you left to pick up on your way back and all the bags that people cannot be bothered to take with them and that lie around the paths where I walk my dog day after day after day (as I walk him 4 times a day I know it's the same bags, so not collected on the way back). But then we have an enlightened parish council here and even my very short (15 mins) morning round has no less than two pooh bins. So maybe I have easy talking.

Oh when I say 'see the difference' I mean literally see the actual bag. I can see very clearly that your attitude to dog pooh is miles above those who don't bother clearing up.

"What I have against it is that I cannot see the difference between the bag you left to pick up on your way back and all the bags that people cannot be bothered to take with them"

Well, that's your problem not mine. I pick mine up so the bright blue bag you may have spotted one day won't be there the next. Sometimes I even waymark them on my GPS so I can find them again on the way back.

Dog poo bins are very hit and miss ground here - small local park: at least three. Huge woodland nature reserve: none If there were more bins, there would be less bagged poo left lying around.

I think it's horrible to see bagged poo on walks - pick it up and carry it with you FFS

I even waymark them on my GPS

Now that is a dedicated dog owner.

Where I live, in the conservation area of a town, the streets are festooned with small black bags of shit. It is left on low walls, at the end of people's drives and at the side of the pavement. On my school run.

Where I walk my sisters dog in a green space designed for kids, Joggers, dog walkers etc it is festooned with unbagged shit. Lots of small bags are left NEXT to the multiple bins that are emptied frequently.

It gives me The Rage. If I knew who did it I'd chuck it through their door.

I have taken to photographing the people who watch their dog and do nothing and sending their picture to the council.

I live near poooseville.
No-one "local" seems to bother cleaning up after their dog, and if they do they don't take the bag away with them , because it's so "rural". It bloody isn't rural, it's a small town in the arse-end of nowhere that some rather naive folks have seen fit to reture to... With lots of tourists, who do clean up after their dogs (or so it appears anyhow)

Dogs poo. If you have a dog, you have to clean up and dispose of its poo. Even if that means carrying bags of poo with you on your walk. Just like if you have a picnic you'll have to carry bags of picnic-rubbish back woth you. When I was a kid we were taught to "take your rubbish home". Not put your rubbish in a bin, but take it home. ...Not having enough bins isn't an excuise - owhy should I (as a council tax payer) have to pay for more dpg-crap bins becuase some lazy feckless arse can't manage to carry bag of their dogs poo for the length of their walk?

But there are two separate points going on here

1. People who for some bizarre reason go to the trouble of bagging the shite but then hang it in a tree or some such

1. People who bag it but leave it to collect at the end of the walk/run

What the first lot are up to is quite incomprehensible but the second bunch (and I am one) is just logical behaviour.

It's disgusting that some people think it acceptable to kick dog shit into the grass verge.

There's a lane not too far from us (very rural) which is nicknamed 'dog shit alley' by walkers/cyclists. There's no shit on the actual lane itself but so much of the stuff has been left around the verges or kicked into the bushes that the whole area stinks vile.

"If one of mine craps on a footpath with a decent sized verge, I kick/scrape it all into the verge."

Wow, thanks

That is utterly revolting.

Feak and Weeble
"Somone entered our garden recently (on a corner plot so 'front' garden goes round whole house and is in fact actual entire garden, IYSWIM) and walked along our very long path... To leave a used condom, tied in a knot, on our front mat "

That's awful, but to make matters worse, are you sure someone didn't just shag on your mat?

Can I ask why dog owners do not train their dogs to perform on command?
Guide dogs are trained this way and I have had three dogs (one was quite thick) and they all poohed or peed when told to.
We just used the same word every time they went to the toilet and they soon learned to go when that word was used.
That way you can get your dog to toilet before and after a walk.
I really hate the way popular walks stink of dog pee especially in the summer.
The one benefit of scottish weather is the rain washes it away.
What a fuss would be made if it was human pee, I have been told off when on occasion I have had to let my toddler pee in a gutter.

If you bag up the poo, then leave it till later to pick up it is actually an offence the second you walk away from the bag. It is littering regardless of whether you intend to collect it on your way back.

Realistically, if a policeman etc saw you do it and questioned you, would they honestly believe you were intending to pick it up later on? I know I wouldn't! If you did get caught doing that you would more than likely end up with a hefty fine!

If my dog craps in the woods, I flick it with a stick into the undergrowth where no one can walk (under brambles etc). That is actually better for the environment than putting it in a plastic bag in your wheelie bin. Anything else, I bag and take home for my wheelie bin. Anything else is selfish revolting behaviour.

I sgree that leaving bagged poo is littering whatever the intentions of the person who left it there. And saying that there aren't enough bins is no excuse at all.

Just had some big red faced knob shouting at me for allowing the dog to crap near his house whilst I was in the process of picking it up ( with the aid of a bag of course). Apparently I should be taking my dog to the forestry to allow it to crap all over the public foot paths there where it seems picking it up and disposing of it is optional. I will be watching said fat gentleman when he walks his dog down there and I will remember to take my phone with me for recording purposes.

I agree with Callisto, in fact lots of the parks and public areas and even national trust woodland/open space places operate a 'flick it' policy. - if your dog shits then flick it into the grass verge as far as you can. it is only in Cafe areas and car park areas that shit needs to be picked up.

Think it makes much more sense.