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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think the dog mess problem is getting much worse since Covid?

169 replies

sadpapercourtesan · 05/02/2021 15:28

It's actually spoiling most of my longer walks, now. Sad It's so disgusting, especially when it's left right in the middle of a pavement so people have walked through it already and made it virtually impossible to avoid.

In the interest of not drip-feeding, I have ASD and I know I am a bit of a loon about disgusting things/poo/bad smells. I avoid the local park in high summer because the stench walking past the dog bins makes me swoon.

Has anyone else noticed the dog mess being much more of a problem in recent months? What can be done about it? I know it's on me to "get over it" and not let it stop me from going for long walks, but I honestly find it so difficult when there's shit every 50 metres or so and even though I'm ridiculously hypervigilant, DH and the kids aren't.

OP posts:
GreenSlide · 05/02/2021 15:57

YANBU it's much worse where I am and it's fucking disgusting.
Having said that I'm glad the poor old dogs who clearly don't usually get walked are getting out and about more.

LST · 05/02/2021 15:57

People are scum. I wish there was a way to track someone who let's their dog shit where people walk and leave it. They should be fined and made to pick shit up for a mile radius of the shit they left.

Radio4Rocks · 05/02/2021 15:58

I think there are more dogs about and the poor things are being taken out several times a day to relieve the boredom of lockdown.

HyacynthBucket · 05/02/2021 16:01

I agree with you OP. I cannot stand it either, its so gross. I am not sure it has got worse recently, but think that when people go to all the trouble of scooping it up into a bag and then hang it on a bush or fence, it is some sort of weird defiance. Its a bit like wearing your mask but letting it slip off your nose, like two fingers up at authority in a passive-aggressive way by those not brave enough to say what they really think. Pathetic.

DinosaurDiana · 05/02/2021 16:02

I agree.
I wondered if those dogs that are usually at home all day, while their owners go out to work, are now actually getting walked. I’ve definitely noticed people I’ve never seen before, with adult dogs I’ve never seen before.

Frenchdressing · 05/02/2021 16:04

Yes much worse. Doesn’t help that the streets don’t seem to be getting cleaned. I have a dog and always pick up after him.

cannotchange · 05/02/2021 16:43

Yes much worse - I've noticed a big difference just between December and January as I usually go out for a big walk everyday. It's disgusting, you have to walk looking down at the pavement to dodge it all !

speakout · 05/02/2021 16:45

I can't remember the last time I even saw dog poo.
In streets or woodland walks.
Where do you live OP?

Tigger85 · 05/02/2021 16:47

Where I currently live is the worst place I have ever lived for dogs mess and littering, even at the best of times it's pretty grim. I don't understand why because there is good dog and litter bin provision throughout the town and they don't tend to be left overfilled by the council. It has always been grim here with dog poo being left on the floor right next to the dog poo bins. But it has definitely gotten far worse during covid, so has the general litter problem. There are used face masks, food and drink packaging, cigarette butts and sometimes those little enyonox gas bottles strewn throughout all the children's play parks, it's also all throughout the hedges and grass at the roadside, every pavement is like dog shit alley atm.

LST · 05/02/2021 16:47

@speakout its all over paths, verges and playing fields here. (Staffs)

Original poster
sadpapercourtesan · 05/02/2021 16:48

@speakout I live in a small city in the South. There do seem to be a fair number of other posters who are also seeing an increase, though, and I doubt they're all living on my street!

OP posts:
AaronPurr · 05/02/2021 16:51

@speakout

I can't remember the last time I even saw dog poo. In streets or woodland walks. Where do you live OP?
Where do you live? I want to move there.

It's awful round my way too. Like many others i'm doing a poo dance from pavement to grass verge to road, and even then it's not always possible to avoid it.

Iheartmysmart · 05/02/2021 16:55

Awful around here as well. Someone had actually let their dog mess on the pavement outside the nursery the other day and just left it! Another dog walker picked it up and put it in the dog waste bin which was about 10 steps away. Disgusting behaviour.

speakout · 05/02/2021 16:57

AaronPurr

I rarely see dogs- either in my estate or local town. A few locally, but they always pick up. Honestly 6 or 7 years since I have ever seen dog poo in a public area.

whenwillthemadnessend · 05/02/2021 16:57

The rubbish issue. Fly tipping etc. Is getting worse and worse and it doesn't surprise me the dog poo is getting worse too.

I have a dog and always pick up unless it's in proper off footpath undergrowth.

I'd never left it in a park or pavement or hang it in a tree. I'd just double bag and carry.

People are minging.

AaronPurr · 05/02/2021 17:04

@speakout

AaronPurr

I rarely see dogs- either in my estate or local town. A few locally, but they always pick up. Honestly 6 or 7 years since I have ever seen dog poo in a public area.

Goodness me 6 or 7 years. I'd say that's pretty unusual. It was a common sight in my area before Covid / lockdown, unfortuntaely like many others on the thread it's much worse now.
DillyDallyDoodle · 05/02/2021 17:06

Definitely worse in my area. The streets are covered much more than normal and I have to constantly keep looking down when I’m walking Angry. DS went for a run yesterday and went onto the verge to distance from people so his new trainers got covered!

I think it’s a combination of lockdown dog purchase and more people walking their dogs who would normally not bother. Two of my neighbours never seemed to walk their dogs (they would just yap in the garden all day) before lockdown.

I wish there was some sort of tracing technology available which all all dogs had to be registered to with the removal of dogs whose owners didn’t pick their shit up. Why should other people be affected by the lazy, ignorant twats choice to have a pet?

Theunamedcat · 05/02/2021 17:10

Someone let there dog take a huge crap right outside my car door I didnt see it and got into my car putting my feet on the pedals to drive by the time I noticed it was too late I had to shop for cleaner to clean my car the stench was fucking rank same size pile of dog crap showed up on my front lawn right where my kids walk across if its a puppy its fucking huge

DobbyTheHouseElk · 05/02/2021 17:12

It’s everywhere. It’s disgusting 🤮

Howiry · 05/02/2021 17:14

I've noticed more poo bags in the verge, if you're going to the effort of picking it up then take the fucking bag home with you too, gives me the rage!

Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel · 05/02/2021 17:17

Definitely worse in our little village. It's all over the bloody place. Every coat I own has poop bags in the pockets. Fucking lazy people. The village Facebook page is full of photos and rightly irate people.

GooodMythicalMorning · 05/02/2021 17:17

yep, on dog walks ive noticed it everywhere. I always pick it up as one of my bugbears but I don't really want to pick other people's dog poo up though.

CaraDuneRedux · 05/02/2021 17:27

YANBU OP, and I say that as a dog owner (who always scoops, and carries kitchen towels and a water bottle if things are runny.

It's a nightmare. (Look away now OP as the next bit is about typical grim doggy-ness). I have a lab and one of the breed traits is a fondness for eating other dogs' poo Envy (not envy) so it's the bane of my life when other owners don't pick up and I get stung with the vets' bill for treating the resulting gut infection.

Mochudubh · 05/02/2021 17:36

YANBU, I've noticed it a lot. I noticed the same during the foot and mouth crisis but at least that was because the countryside was closed.(Not that there's any excuse for not picking it up).

Walking 5 minutes to my local shop is like traversing a minefield but the area I live in isn't the sort of place anyone would come for a walk so that means it must be local people, essentially my neighbours, with no respect for their own neighbourhood.

burritofan · 05/02/2021 17:41

It’s absolutely rampant where I am, not even at the edges of the pavement but all over. And in children’s playgrounds, the “no dogs” section of the park, outside DD’s nursery 🤬, everywhere.

But we’re not imagining the horror! The Graun did a report:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/30/excremental-growth-uk-sniffs-a-pandemic-puppy-poo-problem