to think not all city green spaces should be dog toilets?

[Cumberlover76]

I live in a city with a number of parks and green spaces and every single one is used as a dog toilet. I find it annoying and disgusting that i can't find any grass in the city (apart from very small segregated play parks) to sit on or let my DD run about on that hasn't had a dog shit or piss on in the recent past. I am aware that dog owners need to let their dogs shit exercise their dogs, but i think that there should be much bigger areas in parks and some green spaces where dogs are not allowed. Is this the same in all cities or are some better and should i be writing to the local council using them as examples?

Freespirit yes but even picked up dog shit leaves its residue, sometimes a lot more than others if particularly sloppy

We have had to do a lot of campaigning in our small town, naming and shaming. That's helped a bit. The lovely walk along the canal is still the worst. Literally nauseating. And people taking the trouble to hang bags of shit on trees at eye-level? That is psychotic.

It is quite weird that there's a little fenced-in area for kids in our park but people unleash their dogs and let them take over the whole space.

Good point ItsAll, but I'd still advocate moving to the country ;)

I'm not bothered about other animals,

You should be bothered about foxes. Their poo and urine is far worse than a dog' sand no one picks it up.

Which isn't to say I do not believe owners shouldn't pick up after their dog, obviously.

Because I so often encounter fox poo in city parks.

I'm training my 7 month old puppy to go on the patio first thing, purely because it saves me from having to pick it up on a walk. I can just pick it up at home and get rid, and also sluice the patio with disinfectant. I couldn't disinfect the lawn and doesn't dog wee leave marks on the lawn anyway?

I know there's someone reading who's done the thing of hanging poo on a tree. I see it so often. Explain that!

Because I so often encounter fox poo in city parks.

Of course. Because urban foxes shit and then clear it up.

Do you DNA test the poo you see to check if it's dog, fox, cat or human?

Rats piss on grass and carry Weils Disease. Teaching your DD not to suck her fingers outdoors would be good for her longterm health.

I hate those who don't pick up dog poo as well OP but I don't understand your logic that dog wee is worse than any other animal's wee?

Every time it rains the wee will get washed off the grass and soaked into the soil anyway. There is probably more chance that some other kind of animal has wee'd or pooed (particularly birds) on the specific bit of grass your DD is sat in since the last time it rained - the male dogs wee up the side of trees rather than random patches of grass anyway IME (but then, so do human boys!).

There's going to be bird faeces everywhere and you can't clear that up.

While I do think there should be some dog-free spaces, dogs can't use a toilet and don't have any choice but to poo/wee where they are. It's not the dogs' fault! It's the fault of the owners alone, there's no need to penalise innocent animals.

Wild animal scat is always identifiable because it's full of hair. Fun poo fact of the day.

MyrtleDove, I take your point, that's why I actually think there should be a law that if someone doesn't have a garden, they shouldn't have a dog.

YANBU
It's no better in the countryside, first 30 yards of the foot path from the village are disgusting.

Every house in the village has a garden and several of them have paddocks and fucking fields. There is no possible excuse.

matilda I think I agree with you. I am at people keeping dogs in flats unless they're litter trained (I don't know if you can litter train dogs but presumably small breeds could be).

My dog pretty much always uses the garden. But sometimes she will have to 'go' when out. She will only go on grass (no pooping/ weeing on the pavement, which round here is deemed as more antisocial), and then only out of the way places (as in she will not go on anything resembling a path, or middle of a field), I always pick up. As a lol moment. I had to actually train her to go when out as she would usually only do it at home and then be 'desperate' esp on a long walk as a young dog. Pretty much what people did. Never heard of it being irresponsible dog ownership to have the dog weeing anywhere but home. I get how it seems gross (I pick up grass as well as poop), but lots of other animals will be using it! Just like the fox that has clearly relieved itself on my gravel... I have tried to pick it up, but frankly it has soaked way down. It might be cat poop, but looks like fox.

But agreed. I 'hate' unpicked up poop. I also hate dogs off lead out of sight of owners. Bugs me no end. Dog in sight and under control.

AND. I hate it when people get my dog to jump up at them. Because I have tried to stop her, and it is so hard when half the people she meets actually encourage it. The other half glare at me as I yank her back (fortunately she is getting the idea now, but still).

YANBU. It makes me so angry. East London is full of dogshit everywhere and I can't stand it.

YNNNNNBU! I think the owners / walkers who do not clear up after their dogs should be tasered. We live round the corner from a beautiful big green - it's in urban SE London and when we moved from a rural area we had visions of our DSs frolicking on it, playing football etc with the local children. There are loads of daffodils on it in the spring and it looks lovely. Until you actually walk on it. Then you realise it's nothing more than giant dog toilet with piles of shit every few metres. It's such a shame and so antisocial and inconsiderate. It could be such a lovely amenity for everyone but because of a few lazy fuckers it's a health hazard. I've spoken to the council a bazillion times but they do nothing to enforce the penalty fine notices they so gaily slap on all the lamp posts.

I think for a certain type of person having your dog shit everywhere is part of the reason they have one. It's a big "fuck you" to the rest of us. When I lived in London I watched a guy let his "status" dog crap on the actual doorstep of a shop and walk off laughing. I wasn't brave enough to say anything.

It is not just the poo, it is the fact that dogs are allowed to pretty much roam free in most of our urban green spaces and like other posters have mentioned, i'd like to be able to sit down for a picnic or play with my child without a big dog bounding over and scaring her, she's only 2, many dogs are much bigger than her which must be scary - although i always tell her it's ok, the doggy is just saying hello, do i try and stop her being scared. I'm not bothered by dogs, but i think they smell, they slobber on me (and eat their own shit) and are hairy so i don't really like to be around them much, but in the park we have very little other option. It should be the other way round.

I/we can't do much about other animals, ie birds, mice, foxes they are part of the rural and urban landscape and are more than welcome to go to the toilet where they want. We can do something about dogs being all over our green spaces, humans choose to have them as pets and where to let them go to the toilet and run around, we can restrict this in public spaces so we should - i'm not saying all, it would just be nice for humans to have a bit more priority.

There were over 10 million dogs in this country in 2011, that is 1/6th of our population - far to many imho, i like what a previous poster said, no garden, no dog.

One of the local urban foxes climbed on the window sill and crapped in my window box. The lawn was lovely and clean.

I own a dog. Love him to bits. But hell would freeze over before he runs up to random kids and jumps at them or he shits on the field and i don't clean it up right away. We are lucky where we live (outer ring of large city) we have countryside a short drive and a large playing field and play park complex nearby. I've seen people let their dogs run on to the pitch on the field when small children are playing Saturday league football and complain they've no where else to take their dogs and how silly it is the whole fields taken up with football matches. Ridiculous. I hate when people in small flats and terraces get big dogs anyway, I think it's the wrong environment for them. OP can you get involved with a local cleanup scheme?? There's a thriving one near me and I think it really makes a difference!!

Yes! foxes like to crap on new things in their area. If I leave anything out overnight then it will be in danger of being crap marked its done toys, a flip flop, a trainer, and new stone feature. Also out the front of the house, some rubbish blew in from the nearby park and it managed to balance a shit on a coke can. Quite impressive really. I used to get stressed by it when my kids were little but now I quite like it! Its nice to see the fox in the garden and whats a few more shits when you have two dogs! I've also wormed the fox a couple of times. Oh yes and I've also seen the fox in the middle of winter eat my dog's poo -she had just been out and I saw her have a poo through the window but as I had a friend over I hadn't yet picked it up. Within two minutes the fox was out eating it. So its actually helped to clean up that too. The magpies are also poo eaters...

YANBU
My local park smells of the sun roasting dog shit on a hot day.