AIBU to think you only need to pick up dog poo....

[AnnieLobeseder]

... where there is less than a one in a million chance of someone actually stepping in it?

I know I'm probably opening myself up to a flaming here but.....

I have taken great pains to train my dogs to poop way off the beaten track, under bushes etc etc. Plastic bags are an environmental hazard, as is incinerating dog waste. Dog waste itself is a natural biodegradable product, and in only a problem if it gets stepped in. So while I pick up and dispose of my dogs' droppings if they go near paths, on greens or anywhere else I think there's a chance someone will step in it, I don't if I consider where they go to be 'safe'.

Today, Large Dog was doing her thing on an overgrown bit of grass, past which was a ditch and a fence, a good 1.5m from the footpath. This was not a bit of ground that I would expect anyone ever to be walking on. So I didn't pick it up.

A lady driving past stopped and gave me a bollocking for not picking it up, and shot back a sarcastic "Oh really?" when I said plastic bags aren't environmentally friendly and no-one was likely to step in it. Um, yes, really.

So, AIBU to not pick up dog poop in pedestrian-unlikely places?

YABVU

If I was the woman in the car, I would have got out, oicked it up with one of the plastic bags in my boot and slung it at your departing back. Um, yes, really.

You disgust me.

TheCalmingManatee So there are places where you think people don't walk? Just because you don't walk there doesn't mean that others don't.

Pick it up and, if there isn't a poo bin, take it home. Do you take your litter home?

And if the poo bin is full and there's no room for your plastic bag of dog poo, take it home.

OP why don't you put your dog's crap in some sort of reusable container, carry it home and then deposit it in your garden (a sectioned off bit where no will step of course) and then you can watch it biodegrade and get that warm, fuzzy 'I really care about the environment' feeling and my DC's won't step in it.

win win I'd say.

Cats don't bury their crap ! The ones that crap in my garden don't! Cat mess is equally foul.

And leaving dog mess is revolting. Who made you the judge of where everybody else should walk ? At the very least other dogs are likely to go there, can't imagine that's any fun to clean off a dog

You have a dog you clean up its shit, seems pretty simple to me.

Nobody else wants to walk in your dogs mess.

I didn't know it was toxic, just smelly, in my defence
No, dear, that is no defence.

holyautum i love that warm fuzzy feeling haha.
Bag it and bin it, yuck.

HolyAutumn good idea.

It could biodegrade in one of those digester things, OP could tap off the methane gas and use it as fuel. Win win win !

I am so sick of the sight of dog shit on pavements, in parks, out in the country. I am sick of having to look everywhere my DC goes in case there's dog shit there. It is a real health hazard and it is disgusting. Grow up!

I don't pick up after our dog if he poos in the 3ft high enormous clump of nettles and thistles that's edged with a wall of brambles which is one of his favourite spots, on the basis that any child attempting to walk or play there would be head-to-toe in nettle stings before they even got to the poo.

Other than that though, I always pick up "just in case" so you are YABU.

Hello - I live "off the beaten track" - up a grassy/ muddy lane lined with bushes. The kids used to have their pretend magic house in a bush, also a rope swing hanging from a branch.

People like to walk their dogs here but they often don't clean up and my kids have stepped in it on occasion. Alternatively I or DH have to shovel it up. It's disgusting. Sometimes it's right in the middle of the lane (at least we can see it then!)

I too hate the "dog poo bag hanging from a branch" phenomenon - plenty of those round here. Why go to the bother of picking up your dog's poo and then leaving it swinging in the wind?

Please, OP, can't you just clean the stuff up and then you'll be sure no-one will step in it? I take your point about not wanting to go plastic but so much of what we do has an environmental impact and I do think you could prioritise that and maybe "lose" some other plasticky thing you do. Thank you for being thoughtful in starting this thread, and an interesting and important topic.

YABU

And I find it very hard to believe that you didn't know dog poo is toxic. My kids would love a dog, I won't let them for the simple reason that I can't bend to pick up after it if I had to walk it on my own, and that wouldn't be fair on the rest of the world!

Thanks WoolyTights. I had always wondered about that!

However, cats here, and in a previous area I lived in, dont bury it at all. They dont do it in our garden here because our dog dislikes anything coming into the garden. But the path to the side of our house is shocking.

Please tell us whereabouts you live OP so that those of us with toddlers can be forewarned. And possibly put a big red cross on your door.

What if this guy had had to contend with dog poo as well. uk.news.yahoo.com/missing-biker-found-ditch-three-days-122720437.html

Sorry, OP, you are being awful.

I go running along roadside verges and I do not want to come home with my trainers covered in dogshit. Nappies aren't biodegradeable but civilised people put them on their children and don't let them shit anywhere.

I suppose you never buy anything in any plastic packaging then, ever?

Most ridiculous argument I have ever heard. Yabu.

Oh dear. I think YABU and I usually agree with your posts.

Instead of plastic bags why not use newspaper or something. (I have no idea if that is feasible, one of the reasons I don't have a dog is because I couldn't pick up dogshit).

Ouch at some of the harsh posts calling you disgusting. This can't be easy reading OP.

Why don't you train them to crap in your garden? That's the only place you don't have a social responsibility to puck it up. Bet you do though, even if it's under a tree.

YAobviouslyBU. And you are doing all dog-owners a disservice by being irresponsible. Just pick the damn stuff up. What's the big deal? The only time I don't pick up after my dog is when she charmingly chooses to crap into a cow pat. Even I draw the line there.

yabu, BIL does this, which, as they are super-strict with their kids and would doubtless go mental if they trod dog-shit into the house, is hypocritical as well as minging.

Ps if you are really that worried about the environmental impact of bags, take a trowel and bury it.

I hate to be pedantic but dog poo can't make anyone blind.

The parasites found in dog poo can make you blind, but the poo itself cannot.

But yes OP YABU. I've stung myself badly on nettles retrieving my dog's poo from bushes etc. It's a pain in the ass (bah dum tssh) but I would feel so horrendously guilty if I didn't and some poor child ended up clarted in my dog's shit.

Most of the time I love your posts, annie, esp. in feminism. But on this one, you are being wildly, horrendously unreasonable. Because there's nothing small children like better than a game of hide in the bushes/ long grass ("we're going on a bear hunt") and playing dens. And because I'm still royally pissed off and mildly nauseous that DS knelt in some dog crap yesterday in the local park on his way home from school. Pick the bloody stuff up.