Sometimes there is a genuine reason not to pick up dog poo...

[Griffineater]

AIBU in thinking this? But it did occur to me the other day as I was walking to work and narrowly avoided a dog turd, that sometimes some people might not actually be able to pick up dog poo. What if they are blind or partially sighed for instance or a wheel chair user with a severe disability and physically therefore unable to do it? I feel really bad now for inwardly cursing all the irresponsible dog owners when really some of the dog poos might have been left because of these kind of owners. Opinions please!

Strangely the visually impaired people I know are vehemently against dog shit on the pavements.

Not strange at all is it, It's bad enough when you can see it. There was also a radio discussion the other day about wheely bins and Bin bags being left on the street, and VI people feeling they are unable to leave the house on bin day.
It certainly highlighted issues that never even crossed my mind before.

Jason I was being unsuccessfully ironic.

This is about pet dogs. If you can't clean up you can't have one.

If it rested with me you wouldn't be allowed to have one unless you had a garden for it. But I know many people think dogs mix with parks and streets.

Oh sorry, I'm just very slow on the uptake some days.

The only time I've ever not picked up poo is if it has been diarrhoea. I carry a bottle of water with me if I know one of the dogs has a dodgy stomach so I can sort of wash it away.

We get a community newsletter a few times a year, sometimes they have little interviews with locals.

A while back, the interview was with a blind man (they said most of his family were blind IIRC). One of the things i remember about the interview was that he said how annoyed they got about people leaving dog poo on the pavement, as they couldn't see to avoid walking in it - and that they managed to pick up after their guide dogs despite being blind so why couldn't others?

I'm sure children throwing bags of poo at one another explains some of the poo bags left out there. But by no means all - there are regularly poo bags left "tidily" next to the trees on our street. I'm absolutely sure this is a dog owner, I am just confused as to why they do it.

Notquite some people hang it up to be collected and disposed of on their way back home and then forget

I think if you have a dog you need to work out a system of cleaning up after it. However I'd agree with others that people who are blind and people who use wheelchairs are probably two of the groups for whom dog shit on pavements will cause the most problems, I'd take a guess that they are probably responsible around these issues as a group.

there are regularly poo bags left "tidily" next to the trees on our street. I'm absolutely sure this is a dog owner, I am just confused as to why they do it.

I think if they are willing to bag it then it's more an issue of a lack of Dog poo Bins, i assume they don't really want to carry it around so they pop it out of the way.

Our local woods are FULL of HUNDREDS of little black bags in the undergrowth, on trees, on the path. It looks absolutely terrible. Plus surely they are dangerous for wildlife? I think stick n flick should be the rule in rural areas and bag in parks and pavements. It would also help if more bins were provided. I was walking my friends dog as a favour and i carried the poo bag for 40mins through a small park, pavements and past shops. No sign of one poo bin.

Yabu if you cant pick up you shouldnt own a dog or cat.

You should always pick up, even if, especially if in long grass/woods etc. Kids live to run and explore off the path. I'm totally against the stick and flick advice (and it is against the law, at least in Scotland).

You don't need a specific poo bin to put the bag of shit in, any council bin will do. If there are no bags at all take it home with you. It's really not hard.

Am a also a bit at the thought that it is all of these irresponsible visually impaired/wheelchair users who aren't picking up.

Yes, our village has signs up saying to use any bin.

I once asked a person who was visually impaired how they were able to pick up their dog's poo and he said it was simple. He said the dog would go on command and if he ran his hand down the back of the dog he could feel where it's tail began and the poo would be directly beneath that! He said he always cleaned up his dog's poo using this method.

My parents have always had dogs, every single one has been trained to defecate in their tiny garden, they have a shit shovel to pick it up with as a child I used to play with my dolls surrounded by shit because they didn't shovel it up very often
I just don't understand why everyone doesn't do that. I accept some dogs may be difficult to train but the vast majority could be.
I hate having to avoid the piles of shite and the shit smears (even when people pick it up it often leaves a smear) on the school run.

I had an image of a butler in full formal dress lifting the tail on his coat and...

I'm really liking the idea of training dogs to poo on command, definitely going to give that a go.

Thank you for all the replies. Interesting discussion. If I am ever lucky enough to have staff in the future, I will of course certainly train them to shit in the garden ;-)

Guide dogs are trained to do their business on command (the command we use is Busy Busy is anyone was ever interested!) but they do occasionally have accidents and also, 'screw you' days where they'll go when and where they please but they are generally well trained to go only on concrete and when told to.

Lazy people on the other hand, that irritates me! I will only not pick up when my dog has done a magic trick and I can't find it! (she's so bloody annoying with this sometimes, I have wondered fields trying to find where she did it!) or if she has the runs and I physically cannot pick it up.

My make-a-million idea is that abandoned dog poos are dna-tested to trace them to their owner. Punishment for uncleared poos is communiy service cleaning the streets for a certain number of hours, plus a fine to cover the cost of all the csi stuff. I imagine a ghostbusters style backpack that you suck the poo into and a big dog dna database.

I'm usually mostly anti state surveillance...

I also reckon they should change the law so that dog owners out with their dogs are obliged to bag up and bin any dog poo they pass, whether or not it was left by their dog. I think that would shame people into clearing up after their own dog more, to avoid the ire of other dog owners.

Clearly I've spent too much time thinking about this.

God, the thought of all the work that goes into making sure guide dog shit isn't left on the street and then blind people not being able to see all the turds left around by lazy, irresponsible, selfish scumbags makes me

I had that plan too, longhard. DNA testing- tis the way forward.

Dhs idea: shoot the dogs- in front of the owners.

A sign on a tree down my road said "Pick up after your dog, or I will put laxative down so you can have shit in your house too"

It actually has seemed to work!

I've also had the DNA-ing poo idea meself.

Dogs should all be registered to a DNA database and then licensed- with the fees going to pay the costs involved.

Illegal breeding would result in a prison sentence.