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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think I should be able to visit my local green without having to navigate my children around piles of dog crap

149 replies

Plentyofshit · 28/09/2020 10:19

It’s everywhere, I don’t want to think that most dog owners are irresponsible, but from the amount I see - it’s not just the odd owner. Also - please don’t let your dog bound up to my child saying “don’t worry - she’s harmless”. How the f@@@ do I know that? And I don’t want to hear you then say “Christ - she’s never done that before” - after my child has been maimed...

OP posts:
LindaEllen · 03/10/2020 17:03

I think too many dog owners love their dogs so much that they think everyone else loves them, too, and won't mind them bounding up. Once when I was walking to college a dog ran up to me - really muddy - and jumped up, making my jeans and lower hoodie muddy and damp. The owner actually laughed and said 'one day I might be able to calm him down!' Really? I had to sit in college damp for a few hours and muddy the whole day. It was horrible.

It is also a disgrace when owners don't pick up their poo. They give responsible owners (of which there are, of course, MANY) a bad name.

LolaSmiles · 03/10/2020 17:09

Easy keep your dog to yourself

I do.

I'm just questioning what dog owners should do when 'walking by' is so distressing to your SIL because of her serious phobia.

Equally, you've not clarified whether all these dog owners actually said that they were going to slacken their dogs' leads because your SIL is Asian and needs to meet more dogs.

VinylDetective · 03/10/2020 17:17

[quote Plentyofshit]@CounsellorTroi!! If you can reach it??? Flick it into the brambles?? It’s YOU!! My SIL’s dog rolled in dog shit in the bushes! It was defo dog shit! We were walking over the mud flats to a coastal island - no foxes. It was the most vom inducing experience I have ever had, I had morning sickness/was trying to hide that I was pg/and had a shit covered dog bounding round me. I had to walk miles with it as it leapt up at my DD. Don’t care where your dog shits, you need to do some sort of mission impossible manoeuvre and pick it up!!![/quote]
The Forestry Commission recommends that you stick and flick on its properties and doesn’t provide bins. I pick it up if I can see it but I’m not going to crawl through bushes to get at it. You’re getting beyond ridiculous now.

Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 17:50

@VinylDetective don’t agree with stick and flick. It people are routinely doing this, then what does it do to the environment. It’s a pollutant - in the same category as pesticides.

OP posts:
OP posts:
Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 18:27

Also gives lazy dog owners another excuse ‘I’ll just flick it away’ - and then my toddler picks up the stick covered in shit. Rats feed off it - it’s just vile. I have no issue with natural shit from animals that are in that ecosystem already - but it’s the unnatural shit that would upset the balance.

OP posts:
cheeseychovolate · 03/10/2020 18:31

I think there should be dog free open spaces and parks.

LST · 03/10/2020 18:53

@worrierorwarrior no dogs on beaches?! Wow!

VinylDetective · 03/10/2020 18:54

[quote Plentyofshit]@VinylDetective don’t agree with stick and flick. It people are routinely doing this, then what does it do to the environment. It’s a pollutant - in the same category as pesticides.[/quote]
What nonsense. It’s organic. It rots down and puts nitrogen back into the soil. What do you think the Forestry Commission asks dog walkers to do it? Don’t they teach biology in schools any more?

LolaSmiles · 03/10/2020 19:22

I have no issue with natural shit from animals that are in that ecosystem already - but it’s the unnatural shit that would upset the balance.
This is hilarious.

You want to take your children to outdoor, rural places and have zero issue with them picking things up that could have all manner of animal excrement on them, all kinds of bacteria on them, could have been chewed by rats and other rodents, but if they find a stick with some dog poo on it then that's unnatural.

What do you think other animals excrete? Glitter and rainbows?

Micsam89 · 03/10/2020 20:24

YANBU to not want to step in dog poo and I agree owners need to clean up after their dog. But YABU and dramatic for referring to the dog rolling in shit giving you post traumatic stress. It belittles people who actually have this life altering condition. I do the right thing and clean up after my pets, I hate standing in others dog poo. I also take them to dog parks. It annoys me greatly when I'm in an environment specifically for dogs and uncontrolled little kids come up and try to hug/violently pat or pull my dogs tail and the parents just laugh. It stresses my dogs out, to the point one of my dogs is now fearful of children. I control my animal. Control your child (not saying your kids do this - just having a rant in general).

Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 20:49

@VinylDetective and how about the article I posted - which states something entirely different. Just because it’s the Forestry Commission, doesn’t mean it’s automatically the correct thing to do - or that their stance isn’t controversial. Or don’t they teach how to see two sides of an argument in schools anymore.

OP posts:
Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 20:54

www.peta.org/about-peta/why-peta/pets/ Many people think that owning a pet is unethical anyway.

OP posts:
VinylDetective · 03/10/2020 21:03

If you think I’m going to give credence to some American pile of shit that calls dogs “pooches”, you’re deluded. I’d take what the Forestry Commission says over it all day long.

Dog shit is no different to any other mammals’ shit. There’s rat, mouse, Fox and squirrel shit everywhere that isn’t tarmaced. As I said, I clear it up in the park or on the street but I’m not crawling through bushes in a wood where it will naturally degrade without harming anyone.

You’re obsessed.

VeganVeal · 03/10/2020 21:10

I only walk in Forestry Commission woods so do what they recommend, just leave it, their woods, their rules. My dogs dont crap on on the paths but in the undergrowth, I just leave it, its fine. If you and you kids stick to the paths then there wouldnt be an issue. You're making your own problems. What about deer, badger and bore poo, I bet you'd want them dead as well? Live and let live.

WorksTheDinerAllDay · 03/10/2020 21:12

I think dogs should be kept on leads at all times when in public. I'm fed up of the "he's only being friendly brigade." I live in a national park and those types are everywhere.

I don't remember ever been knocked over by a strange dog when I was a child yet it's happened to my daughter half a dozen times in the last couple of years. Always the same wanker excuse and never so much as an apology. I think it's a very modern phenomenon that people are treating their dogs like spoiled children rather than pets that need to be trained.

Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 21:13

@VinylDetective there’s a very full analysis of dog shit here and they conclude that it’s a danger to public and environmental health. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3564131/

OP posts:
VeganVeal · 03/10/2020 21:16

What really fucks me off is the out of towners, I've walked the woods for nearly 50 years and until recently didnt see anyone. Now they turn up on mountain bikes and think they can ride anywhere and a lot dont like the dog walkers at i means they cant ride as fast as they want. Most are a bunch of cunts.

Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 21:16

@VeganVeal I think whatever the Forestry Commision day, you’re introducing something unnatural. If similarly dog owners shat in the bushes, and - say 100 humans visited a day - and this then leeched into nearby water sources, it would pollute.

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jasjas1973 · 03/10/2020 21:19

Wild animal shit isn't like dog crap, few carnivores in this country, dogs have mainly a meat based diet and loads of it, so shit lots! they also go where people go (obviously) and there are fucking thousands of the mutts.

Try walking round your local park and count how many foxes you see and then count the dogs?

Also have a thought for the FC workers who strim the pathways after you let Fido shit in the brambles..... etc when that lump of shit splatters up all over them..... its vile.

& thats before we get onto dog attacks and the cost to the NHS.

Dogs should be licenced and an expensive one at that, £500 per animal, cheap considering how much they sell for!

Dog ownership has now reached ridiculous levels and now needs to be curbed.

jasjas1973 · 03/10/2020 21:21

@VeganVeal

What really fucks me off is the out of towners, I've walked the woods for nearly 50 years and until recently didnt see anyone. Now they turn up on mountain bikes and think they can ride anywhere and a lot dont like the dog walkers at i means they cant ride as fast as they want. Most are a bunch of cunts.
Agree how dare other people use your private woodland......
Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 21:21

I’m going to lobby the Forestry Commission about this stick and flick policy. It’s disgusting.

OP posts:
VinylDetective · 03/10/2020 21:27

@Plentyofshit

I’m going to lobby the Forestry Commission about this stick and flick policy. It’s disgusting.
You do that. Good luck.
Original poster
Plentyofshit · 03/10/2020 21:33

@VinylDetective Thanks for your good wishes! Xx

OP posts:
LolaSmiles · 03/10/2020 23:08

www.peta.org/about-peta/why-peta/pets/ Many people think that owning a pet is unethical anyway
Ok... Great.

Really this whole thread can be summed up as 'I openly don't like dog owners and wish for my children to have the option of picking up clean sticks and exploring clean nature that is only covered in the excrement of any number of animals, but I don't like dog owners so will make silly generalisations because I don't like them'.

Almost all dog owners would say that dog owner should pick up after their dog.

It's a special kind of obsession to go from 'dog owners should pick up dog poo' to 'the majority of owners of the 9.9 million pet dogs out there clearly don't pick up after their dog' to 'yeah well some people say let's are unethical'.