Who does an Easter Egg Hunt in a public place?

[gracielooloo]

I was out with the dog early this morning (6.30). We live in a village and two minutes up the road there are fields.

Walking down the track (it just leads to a field, no houses) realised there were pastel coloured eggs hanging from branches and plastic eggs on the ground, had a look and fortunately they were all empty. That was all good except for the polystyrene bunnies of which one took a battering and lost an ear from ddog tossing it about a bit, replaced them and went on our way.

Got to the end of the track and there’s some trees, here displayed in front of me is a Happy Easter banner, think Christ what now. Ddog belts over (he’s a lab so will eat ANYTHING!) and I follow. Being careful I don’t get a branch in the eye I look down at my feet and here’s a full blown Easter Egg Hunt, choc eggs strewn everywhere and one huge egg. Fortunately I grabbed Ddog, sure he only got two wee eggs and stuck his lead on.

The whole thing has amused or maybe bemused me, whoever did it was either up very early or did it last night but would you not be worried about the wildlife getting in amongst it!😏🦊🦉

@raffle that's a really lovely idea- gives a focus to children's walks, and a bit of Easter fun too. You have nice creative people on your estate!

Bloody idiots.. if they don't have a garden then they can do it in the house.

Of course, we're on MN so it's the dog's fault.

Both being unreasonable! Don't see the vote for that!

Surprising in these times that the daily exercise for any family could be an Easter egg hunt for eggs that might have corona on them.

Why do dogs have to be on a lead due to ground nesting birds yet cats can wander wherever they like killing birds and leaving their toxoplasmosis laden shits in other people’s gardens?

Why don't people on mumsnet seem to realise that Ddog takes longer to type than dog?

I don’t agree with the chocolate eggs being left out in public, but at the same time I don’t agree with your dog being off lead. Fault on all sides really.

Had your dog been on lead, it wouldn’t have bolted off without you to explore the area, and you wouldn’t have had to wrestle dangerous things out of it’s mouth as it wouldn’t have had the opportunity.

@DonnatellaLymandonatella Farm cats prefer to find prey close to farms or around buildings and don't usually roam about the fields so are not so much of a problem to nesting birds in the countryside although I agree that young cats (adult cats don't normally shed it) can cause issues around lambing time with toxoplasmosis.

The chocolate is not the brightest idea for various reasons, but I don't see any issues with hanging decorations or painting rocks or anything similar, as you can look for /admire them at a distance and no touching needed. Plus it's a bit of fun.

I think chocolate left unattended will obviously get eaten or trampled on, be that by dogs, humans, wild animals or whatever.

I think it is pretty normal to have a dog off a lead in a quiet area. I doubt the op was expecting some randomly abandoned choc eggs and she put the dog back on the lead when she realised.

We all know it take longer to type Ddog than dog. Don't pretend to have realised something no one else knows. Those of us that type DDog do so because they are dear to us.

Seriously, I think all the dog hating people in the country have mumsnet accounts. In most cases, what they know about dogs can be written on the back of a postage stamp.

Your dog should be on a lead if it eats food off be floor and doesn't recall. Have you never seen the pictures of people putting toxins in food in parks for dogs?
They were also stupid and selfish to use a public park for their Easter egg hunt. They'll be disappointed when someone has already taken them. Also, people could pee on them and all sorts. There are horrible people in the world.

To clarify it was a field not a park.

To those posters saying dogs should be on a lead at all times do you never let your dogs off lead?
Our dog is on lead in town or in parks, but we allow him to run free in this particular field.

To those who mentioned ground nesting birds I (ignorantly) didn’t know about this so I googled and found this-

During the breeding season (usually April-July) keep your dog on a short lead or close at heel in areas such as moorland, forests, grasslands, loch shores and the sea shore to avoid disturbing birds that nest on or near the ground.

I was not walking in any of these areas but will ensure he is leashed if I am. Although obviously not likely at the moment due to CV.

I was not complaining about the egg hunt itself I just found it odd that someone would leave all this lying about unattended for any animal to rake through. It did look very pretty though!

Were you walking on a public footpath through private land? Could it have been a hunt set up for children who live there?

My lab was on the lead because he ruined an Easter egg hunt last year by eating most of the eggs.
He still managed to eat a small easter egg this morning. He was sniffing around in the undergrowth preparing for a poo and discovered the egg. One gulp and it was gone including foil, no time for me to grab it off him..

I let my dog off the lead in fields (always on lead where there is livestock) and on footpaths where there are few or no people. He is not interested in people, he recalls well and whilst we are rural we aren’t walking in the sort of remote area where there are ground nesting birds. Mine would definitely have chucked chocolate eggs about and tried to scoff a few... he is a dog!! Even on his lead I’d have had to wrestle chocolate off him!

Where are these fields where people let their dogs off? Where I live fields are all owned by farmers - the only fields you can let your dog off lead in are private ones rented out for dog walkers.

My dog is on a lead at all times in public whether it’s a field, woodland or whatever. The only time he is ever off the lead is in our own fully enclosed garden.

At the moment ALL dogs are required to be on leads - maybe because it’s your ‘d’dog the rules don’t apply to you?

@cacaca not at all, please don’t presume that because I call him ddog that I think the rules don’t apply to me.

Point taken and duly noted regarding dogs on leads at this point in time.

Who owns the field OP?

Cacaca There's no rule about dogs having to be on leads at the moment, unless you know something I don't? I am happy to be corrected if there's a link to some guidance about this.

Cary I think it depends where you live. We are in a national park with 14 miles of forest between us and the next small village. I walk my dog off-lead a lot (only really put her on for one stretch that's closer to a farmer's fields). She has good recall, but she would definitely snaffle an egg left unattended on the ground before I noticed and called her back. I don't think many dogs wouldn't.

I find a lot of people on mn are quite anti-dogs. My rl experience is that most people accept that walking dogs is a pretty normal thing to do.

This happens in our local park because lots of families live in flats without gardens. Put your dog in a lead.

Easter Egg hunt is ridiculous.

YABU to have dog off lead, as current guidance states on a lead/under close control when walking your dog. As an owner of a greedy breed, I do feel your pain, mine would eat literally anything given half a chance!