To hate 'stick and flick'

[lozster]

A Conservative MP is advocating that owners don't pick up dog poo but instead 'stick and flick' in to undergrowth. This is apparently to avoid plastic poo bag littering. My local forestry commission already have signs advising to do this. Consequently I avoid this area as my toddler loves to run around and pick up sticks. AIBU to want to be able to walk through the countryside with an inquisitive toddler without having to stay exclusively on a path?

I object to you and your non-recycling waste as much as you object to my dog's. And her waste is, at least, organic.

I object strongly to both kinds of waste!

From the title I thought this thread was about Wingardium Leviosa at first, but that was Swish and Flick.

Would be handy for dealing with dog shit I suppose.

BadLad

Peskipooski pesternomi!

Impressive Harry Potter knowledge there, Page.

I can recognise Lockhart's useless spell to deal with the Cornish Pixies, but no way could I have come up with the words off the top of my head.

I've seen a bag of dog poo hanging from a branch over the middle of a busy road, about 20ft up. I have still no idea how on earth someone managed that.

And once a car in front of us was obviously hitting the lever for their back wiper, wondering why it wasn't doing a full sweep of the rear window. Because it had a big black poo bag hanging from it, waving at us.

To me this is just an admission of failure to deal with skanky dog owners.

There isn't actually a reason for dogs to shit anywhere but in the owners' gardens anyway - you can train them to do this and in other countries people do. Even people in this country train assistance dogs in this way.

So they shouldn't be shitting in public places anyway. Work from that premise, and leaving bags of shit hanging around or just moving the shit so it's not on the path - as though the rest of us should never veer from the path - is not something that should even be a consideration.

If you had a dog you'd be well aware of the amount of fox and badger shit that is around, mine doesn't roll in it but friends' dogs do. It's not obvious until you know what it looks like.

Cat shit is also stinky, but doesn't stay around long!

Horse poo is also very irritating but you never hear of riders urged to stop and pick up after their animals.

Someone kindly flicked dog poo into my garden. It scattered across play equipment, swings and the slide. Fun afternoon for me scraping it off and tracking down all the slingshot pieces that scattered over the lawn, plus scraping it off the kids wellies as they all ready stomped through it.

After a couple of glasses of wine that night I was plotting to catch the dirty fuckers by hiding in the bushes with my biggest kitchen knife. DH, rather boringly, pointed out we should probably see if it happened again and then get CCTV instead.

6 months later it hasn't happened again so I would have spent a lot of time waiting in the bushes! Now someone keeps leaving poo on my front bit of crappy grass so I am planning fence and passive aggressive, possibly just aggressive, signs and occasionally hurtling out the front door if I see suspiciously lurking dog owners. Such fun.

YANBU I manage a number of wildlife sites. Adding tonnes of dog shit to them each year does nothing for wildlife and is not comparable to the addition of 'wild faeces' because no wild carnivore lives at such high population densities.

Really interesting to hear the different opinions on here. barbarian I am the OP so obviously think your view is splendid . Seriously, it's good to hear from someone who manages wildlife sites. Plus you, and previous posters, have summarised the difference between wild poo and dog poo far more eloquently than I did. I wonder why the Forestry Commission are advocating this when your experience must be similar to theirs? I must say I'm not a big fan of the forestry commission who manage the area near me. It's a bit theme park like and reminds me of Joni Mitchell's tree museum with a dollar and a half just to see 'em. Flicking encourages walking on paths only, unless like a previous poster you are happy to get shit all over your shoes, and I wonder if they prefer it that way?

I'm against stick and flick, and pro bag it and bin it. On popular walks the stench is terrible. Dog muck takes weeks to break down.

But isn't it dog poo that contains blindness causing bacteria? I had a friend as a little girl who was blind in one eye after falling down in a park on grass, starting to cry and then rubbing her eye. But in actual woodland I don't mind it as much as in parks where kids play and pushchairs/wheelchairs might pick it up.

Justanothernameonthepage Both dog and cat mess contains parasites that can cause blindness in vulnerable people; but with dog waste they take 2 weeks to hatch out and reinfect other dogs and foxes.
Which is another reason why bagging the waste and binning it is responsible. It stops dogs infecting each other with roundworms.

Horse poo is also very irritating but you never hear of riders urged to stop and pick up after their animals.

I've seen a few threads on horse poo...apparently some people seem to think that horses should wear some kind of giant nappy or that their owners should have someone following behind with a shovel to pick it up. I don't find horse poo irritating - horses are herbivores and their poo is mostly digested grass that is harmless and will soon biodegrade. Dogs on the other hand are carnivores and their waste can spread disease. The populations of wild carnivores (eg foxes) are tiny in comparison to the number of dogs being walked in the countryside.

I would much rather people bagged up dog poo and took it away with them. IMO it's a responsibility you sign up for when you decide to get a dog.

If you are out in the countryside there is poo everywhere - it just rots down into the ground and provides nutrients to the soil. I think stick and flick makes sense in that cintext.

But in towns and parks and beaches (may the lord preserve us - dogs on beaches! - groan) then responsible bagging and binning is the way to go.

YANBU. If you have a dog you pick up /scrape up / mop up every time, and carry it with you until you can dispose of it properly.

Other shitting carnivores/omnivores are far less common than dogs. Herbivore shit is generally pretty benign / easy to clean / far less smelly.

What about along a canal towpath, it is ok to flick it into the canal water?

YANBU. Why can't it be bagged and put in the bin? Grim.

ginger

What about along a canal towpath, it is ok to flick it into the canal water?

Of course not! Would you dump dog shit in your own pond?! Canals have an ecosystem that would be impacted by people dumping shit in, people also use canals recreationally (kayaking etc) and don't want to be stirring up shit. I am that anyone would even consider that a possibility!

You do talk about poo a lot when you have dogs ...

In appropriate areas, I take the approach of using one bag per walk (or indeed several, cos my dogs' poo is properly solid and doesn't leave a mess) to pick up the poo and throw it somewhere very inaccessible that it is blindingly obvious no-one is going to stumble across it. Examples would include under large holly bushes on our regular morning walk, or other side of a ditch with no public access.

I re-use the bag a fair few times if there are no obvious marks (obv being very careful to not touch the inside). This means that I occasionally put one empty bag in the bin to go to landfill, rather than 6-9 full ones.

Obviously there are some areas where this is not appropriate, and I bag it and bin it, taking it home to do so if necessary.

Obviously this is not laziness, I am still picking the stuff up anyway, just disposing of it differently. I would genuinely assume that this has far less environmental impact than putting three dogs' worth of poo in individual bags in the bin on every walk?

I am somewhat concerned about those talking about effects on soil, although I rarely walk where there would be any grazing livestock and would obviously B&B if I did.