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?

For those who are wondering, I shall be more careful and considerate of where I pick up and where I don't. Small Dogs' leavings nearly always get picked up because he has no shame and goes right next to the path (never on it). But Large Dog gets all shy and will trek right off into the brambles and nettles or down ditches so hers will probably continue to be left.

Arf at martians.

YABU, it is a health hazard and can infect the soil for a number of years. It can lead to blindness. In most public places it is against the law to not pick up after your dog for good reason. Unless it is a designated area you should pick up. Why are you wasting my time making me think about dog poo when there are laws against this antisocial behaviour?

I'm laughing my arse off at this thread, some people are really getting themselves worked up!
I have two big dogs. I always pick up after them when walking them on leash around our complex.

However, when I walk them off leash, on land that is a semi building site with canals either side, dirty water, dead iguanas (I live in the Caribbean if you're wondering why there are iguanas about) and fish around, I don't pick up after them and neither do any of the other dog walkers.

Not the place for kids to be running around really but the kids that I do see there manage to avoid the poo and nobody gets in too much of a flap about it. And on that note, given that nobody picks up after their dogs, my two have never in their lives come back covered in shit, either on their coats or their paws. They have however, come back covered in dead crab that they've rolled in and then eaten. That smell of that shit will make your eyes water...

I can understand what you're saying though OP, if my dog was to take a shit at the side of the M25, I probably wouldn't pick it up on the basis that nobody would ever be walking there, but if I was anywhere near a public pathway or field, I'd pick up or adopt the stick and fling method.

Don't think you deserve quite the flaming you've received though, 7 pages talking about dog shit. This has to be some kind of a record!

Shit on a stick, there are 8 pages, sorry!

Could you all stop flaming me now, please? I'm supposed to be writing a paper and all this poo-covered hilarity is distracting me.

why not dry the dog poo in strips and make your paper out of it? Recycle, reuse

Beesness piss off i got patent pending on that idea!

haha enviro paper. hey we could go on dragons den and be rich!

The only time I don't pick it up is in the forest when pooch scurries off into dense undergrowth that I can't get to because it's so thickly overgrown. Any other time I pick it up.

Yabu. People seem to think that if their dog craps on the grass verge it's fine, but that is often the very bit where children will walk and it's harder to see it on the grass than on the footpath. It can make children go blind, which is more of a concern than an ungreen plastic bag imo.

There is a lot of dog shit around here. Mostly the dcs are good at avoiding it. The absolute worst stuff is the stuff in the bushes. Horrible when you go blackberry picking!

i clear up after my dog when i walk him in my local churchyard, sometimes i pick up after other dogs as well, people sit on the grass.

when i walk him in the woods i don't pick up after him because a) i can't find it and b) its usually too deep in the undergrowth.

I have always made sure my kids look where they are going because shit on shoes is nasty.
sad thing is though, its more of a hazard at my mums as they have 4 dogs.

My old dog used to save it up for me and would ALWAYS go on zebra crossings...right in the middle of them. I hated having to stand there and clear up with a whole line of cars looking at me while he grinned inanely (the dog that is). Not so easy to do either if the dog has a dicky tummy...

ewwww scarletlady yeah that would be a deal breaker for me. can you not get dog nappies?

jchocchip I think it's 7 years that the zoonotic parasite that can make children and adults blind, can live in the soil.
That's a long time and puts me off letting my girls 'explore' in places where people walk there dogs..which now also appears to be churchyards..Why would you walk your dog and let it crap in a churchyard? Is nowhere sacred??

their not there

YABU OP. Please pick up after your dog.

I do commend you on trying (though failing, please read this) to be environmentally friendly, so you could research other ways to dispose of your dog's poop. I don't have a dog (yet) but I just did a quick Google and it looks like loads of people are discussing/have solutions to the disposing of dog poo problem. There is bound to be something that works for you?

Respect to the OP for coming back on and accepting she was BU. For those saying what about the environmental impact of the plastic bags, they are nothing compared to the impact of the dog itself
www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427313.200-cute-fluffy-and-horribly-greedy.html

Problem is that when the path gets crowded or soiled by someone else's mutt, then folk find themselves forced to tread 1-1.5 m off the path.

Cow muck can carry E. Coli 157 which didn't even exist back when I was a nipper. Ain't safe to muck about with muck.

In a countryside setting, I think it's reasonable to fling it into thick brambles or nettles, and under dense hedgerows.

Yabvu! I take dd to play at a lovely local park with a fenced play area. Every time I go anywhere near the bushes on the outside perimeter if the fence I can smell dog poo rotting away. It's not as if there isn't a dog poo bin!!!
I am so revolted by it I actually think some parks should be entirely dog free - the whole park obviously the kid bits are anyway, because it's so disgusting.
I love dogs and hope to be able to own one in the future but I will not be letting it shit in the bushes next to the swings.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, let me say it again for turnip's benefit, my dogs do not shit (or are picked after) on fields, paths, parks etc etc etc.....

If a woman was driving past and and was able to stop and give a bollocking from her car, then clearly we are not talking about some remote area or one not accessible to children, deep in the woods...

I see that you have accepted you were BU, though, so good for you.

So, just out of interest how long would it take for a dog turd to decompose away to nothing ?

sorry its an American link but it tells you how long & what's in it etc. grim reading!

www.clearchoicescleanwater.org/pets/pet-poo-impacts/

The link says (twice) 'The average household owns four dogs or cats'.
REALLY?

maybe in America that's the norm. we have zero cats & dogs, got enough to do picking up after the kids and dh lol.