To remind you that dog poo can cause blindness?

[UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa]

Around 100 people (mostly children) a year in the UK experience vision loss because of exposure to dog poo. Clean up after your dog every time.

YABU - I already knew about dog poo and blindness.
YANBU - This is new information to me.

Thanks for voting. I'm really curious to know whether this is common knowledge.

Also, keep your dog out of "no dogs" parks! (Pretty much just a rant from here, so feel free to skip this part .) I'm also so tired of seeing entitled dogs owners bringing their dogs into "no dogs" parks, which are set up (in part) to reduce children's exposure to harmful faeces.

PREDICTABLE EXCUSES:
PE#1: "But I clean up after my dog."
Not 100% you don't. There's no way you would rub your hand in the place you just cleaned up and then stick it in your mouth. That's what kids do, and that's why there are a few but some areas that do not allow dogs.

PE#2: But I worm my dog regularly."
The reason it has to be redone is because dogs pick up roundworms again, so it's not 100% effective.

PE#3: "But I'm just passing through."
Passing through the "no dogs" park is being IN the park. And dog faeces aside, there are other reasons why people might go specifically to a "no dogs" parks (severe allergy, fear of dogs, etc.).

PE#4: "What about cats/foxes?"
We're talking about dogs here.

PE#5: "What about service animals?"
Service animals are allowed to go anywhere the owner goes, so obviously I'm not talking about those.

@thatonehasalittlecar

Urban and rural foxes are the primary source of toxocariasis in the UK, not dogs.

As for a dog free country - ha! Why should your fear / non-life threatening allergy trump anyone’s wish to share their life with a pet?

Want a dog free zone, stay at home. It’s as rational as suggesting anyone with a dog keeps them in their own house.

I bet you all have grey interiors with ‘Love Laugh, Live’ emblazoned on some cheap slate and spend so much on Zoflora you’re poisoning the water table.

I'd like a dog-free zone in a public space that the council has specifically designated as a dog-free zone.

[quote Katedanielshasakitty]**@meraas* But they are allowed to roam free by law. Do you let your dog out of the house on his own? If not, control where he goes and pick up the dog poo.*

And that doesn't reduce the risk. Which is what OP is talking about. Not wether it's legal or not.

Cat shit in other people's gardens. How is a dog shitting in a park not ok, even when picked up, but a cat shitting in someone's gardens absolutely fine....when you are looking at risk of turning people blind. Not the law.

Dog shit should be picked up. Dogs shouldn't be in places they are not allowed. I totally agree with that. But, from a risk point of view. Compare the situations. A dog shots in a dog free zone and the owner picks it up. A cat shit shits in a families garden. Not picked up. Which situation poses most risk to the child? The residue of the now removed dog poo in a fairly large open space. Or the cat shit, that's still in a normal sized family garden?

The op would like a dog free country. Many people would like a cat free country too. But neither are actual law and neither are being campaigned for.

Personally, I think cats are a far bigger risk for this AND I don't see why they need to be allowed to roam free. All animal owners should be responsible for picking up their animals shit. Which would mean keeping cats in the boundaries of your property. I don't see a problem with that.

Dog owners who are also irresponsible should face much bigger fines, imo. As well.

A wild animal is a completely different argument. You can't compare foxes and cats.[/quote]
I never said I wanted a dog-free country. I want 1. People to clean up after their dogs, 2. People to keep their dogs out of "no dogs" spaces, 3. People to know that in addition to the common heath risks that many people know about, there is a serious, albeit rare, one that people should also know about.

I would love for cats to also be raised in such a way as the public would not come into contact with their faeces. I don't think there's much that can be done about cats defecating in gardens (unfortunately!) due to current laws. What I can do is call people out who are breaking laws (at the moment, they apply to dogs).

I clean up after my dog.

I keep my dog out of dog free spaces

I believe the risk from fox and cat poo is just as bad as that from dogs and your focus on dogs is designed to inflame.

It's common knowledge and has been for years. Your post is rather preachy.

"31wetotter

DynamoKev

Around 100 people (mostly children) a year in the UK experience vision loss because of exposure to dog poo
What is the source of this statistic?

I think they mean following toxocariasis (all sources, it's not just dogs)"

Yes, I see that figure is for toxocariasis from all sources, so it would have better to clarify that (it wasn't clear in some of the other sources I was reading). The main point of the post is about vision loss being caused at all, which is new info to 25% of posters according to the vote on this thread. Dogs aren't the only source, but they're the most controllable one given the current laws.

www.fareham.gov.uk/licensing_and_inspections/dog_control/petsorpests.aspx

And @DynamoKev, I haven't "ignored requests for the source of the claims". I've been working my way through the thread in order. I didn't realize this was my TED Talk.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

I knew this but put yanbu because I agree with your post.

You sound nothing like Amanda - take no notice.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing Thanks! But, anyway, isn't Amanda the hero of that show? She helps people by pointing out how they can improve, and she provides a lot of useful info.

@Katedanielshasakitty

I would wish for that too, being someone who regularly removes cat faeces from my flowerbed.

@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa so you have to regularly remove cat shit yourself. From your own garden. But, this thread is aimed at dog owners. If you are so concerned about the risks of blindness, surely the thread should be pointing the danger of both dog AND cat shit.

Seems odd that you think the risk comes mainly from dogs. When the evidence doesn't prove that.

They are both a danger, but legally cats are allowed to roam free (not saying I agree with that).

Dog poo certainly causes blindness in their bloody owners who some how magically do not see their dogs taking a poo to not clean up after them!!

Thank you for info, I actually learnt something

But as an aside, why do riders never stop to pick horse shit?

*pick up

@Awalkintime

As a dog owner I agree that owners should pick up after their dogs and shouldn't go in places where restrictions are such as kids play areas.

However, I think this aggression towards dog owners is disgusting and is leading to severe issues which are dangerous and terrifying. I'd like something to be done about the violent way anti-dog people behave towards dog people. They need to be arrested and dealt with severely.

Last year when my dog was in the middle of a poo some men drove up from behind me so couldn't see the front of me and that I had a bag already over my hand and was waiting for my dog to finish his poo). They pulled up their car said why the fuck aren't you picking his poo up you fat bitch. I turned, shocked and showed them the bag on my hand and said what the fuck do you think this is for. They carried on asking why I wasn't doing it already and were getting more abusive to which I told them to dog hadn't finished and some twats were shouting at me. They then drove off, turned the car around and then drove at speed towards me and my dog before slamming the breaks on cm away from us.

Obviously, those guys are dicks, and that's unacceptable behaviour. I have absolutely no problem with dog owners who clean up after their dogs and keep their dogs out of "no dog" areas.

Even when I challenge (yet another) person in the dog-free park, I always start with the assumption that they didn't know and simply ask "Do you know that dogs are not allowed in this park?" I think people who are breaking rules regarding their dog should be challenged every time but 1) not aggressively, and 2) it doesn't apply in your case as your dog hadn't even finished its transaction.

@sundaydisposition

Wait, why do you have to ask if you know everything about us? [https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/4273553-I-know-everything-about-you-AMA]

Also, I voted YABU because I already knew this.

Ha! A well-researched post! Well, I do know everything but I forgot.

@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa

They are both a danger, but legally cats are allowed to roam free (not saying I agree with that).

But that makes them a bigger risk. Your post is about the danger of dog poo making people blind.

Regardless of the legality of it, cat poo is likely higher risk

If you post was to 'raise awareness' surely you would have included the fact that you could actually catch this in your own back garden?

I don’t think people are that arsed by this issue, tbh. If they were they would pick up dog poo whether it was their dogs or not, much as you would deal with a used syringe in the street or park to protect children.

@Rubyupbeat

It's common knowledge and has been for years. Your post is rather preachy.

Not that common, if ~25% of people voted that they didn't know this. And if I'm being preachy, can I get an AMEN?

Yabu - people know this. Most people do clean up after their dogs and don't take their dogs into 'no dog zones' or anywhere else that isn't dog friendly. Every dog owner cannot be held responsible for a few bad dog owners just as everyone with a car cannot be held responsible for people who speed or drive dangerously.

Cat poo and fox poo is a bigger risk.

[quote Katedanielshasakitty]@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa

They are both a danger, but legally cats are allowed to roam free (not saying I agree with that).

But that makes them a bigger risk. Your post is about the danger of dog poo making people blind.

Regardless of the legality of it, cat poo is likely higher risk

If you post was to 'raise awareness' surely you would have included the fact that you could actually catch this in your own back garden?[/quote]
@Katedanielshasakitty
Yes, reading everyone's input, there are a few tweaks I would make to the original post, mainly saying "dog/cat poo". That didn't happen because some of the other sources I read were referring specifically to dog poo, but further reading seems to show that the cases should be lumped together. However, my focus was on raising awareness of how the risk could be reduced by people following the current laws/regulations. Again, these mainly apply to dogs (and, yes, that's unfair). Expecting dog owners to clean up after their dogs and keep them out of dog-free areas is one thing; expecting cat owners to clean up after their cats that are allowed to roam free is another. It actually really puts me off ever wanting to own a cat because I wouldn't want other peeps to clean up after it and I wouldn't want it to be stuck inside (and I'm skeptical about whether I could confine it to my garden).

I knew this already. Gobsmacked at the number of folk who don’t bother picking up after their dogs, utter selfish bastards. We’re currently on holiday in a seaside town and there are SO many bloody dogs all over the place - many of whom have owners who just seem utterly clueless. One barked repeatedly in a restaurant we were in tonight and frightened anyone walking past it to go to the toilets. Just bloody WHY?? I’m a dog lover but there is definitely an epidemic of anti-social dog owners at the moment.

@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa that’s why your told not to change cat litter trays when you’re pregnant.

And yet you think dogs are the biggest tissue.

When I was young we had a dog. It wasn't taken for a walk until it had 'done its business' in the garden. Dad cleaned the garden daily.

Barbara Woodhouse publicised how to to make dogs do this on command. I remember the command was 'whoopsie'.

Dog owners should foul their own property - not public property.

Was in the town centre today and counted 48 dogs in the space of 10 minutes. Loads of dog dirt smears all over, loads of dog mess not picked up and loads of pee streams full width of the pavement. Not very nice when you're trying to manoeuvre a pushchair around - worse still when that pushchair is taken inside with animal waste on the wheels.

[quote Datingandnoideahowto]@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa that’s why your told not to change cat litter trays when you’re pregnant.

And yet you think dogs are the biggest tissue.[/quote]
Yes, I think the thing about pregnant women and cat litter trays is fairly well known (was repeated to me multiple times while pregnant) but that the risk from dog faeces is (possibly, hence my asking the question) lesser known.

And yet you think dogs are the biggest issue. It's easy to argue against somethong I never said/claimed. Get that strawman, get it!

So now OP is saying they never claimed dog poo was the major issue - despite all the posts and the explicit warning not to even mention cats. OK then.

PE#4: "What about cats/foxes?"
We're talking about dogs here.

Even though the "statistics" quoted turned out to actually include dogs and foxes.

@DynamoKev

So now OP is saying they never claimed dog poo was the major issue - despite all the posts and the explicit warning not to even mention cats. OK then.

I never claimed it was the "biggest issue".