To ask, if you don't pick up your dog's poo, why?

[BelleMarionette]

The streets here are littered with shit.

I have a dog and collect mine and carry spare bags to share too. I know it's not all that owners. I collect other poo too but can't do the entire neighborhood.

If you don't pick up yours, please tell me why, and what would get you to pick it up.

I challenged a woman yesterday whose dog shitted and she walked off. She still didn't collect it.

I'm wondering about creative solutions.

Fed up of mine and my kids shoes being covered by it.

I do believe some of it is cats too, so cat owners suggestions welcome too.

My cat poos in my neighbours garden buries it and leaves, I go and dig it up and bin it. It's an agreement as the neighbours were not happy about it but yet I watch them not pick there dog poo up.🤷

Any unregistered dogs seen in public will be seized. I assume people with banned breeds don't often take them out in public anyway, so they won't be fouling the pavements! It would help with that too.

They probably think it will 'wash away'. When I was younger, dogs crapped EVERYWHERE. Perhaps people still stuck in that mindset?

I don't mind if people leave dog crap in the countryside, I suppose, if the alternative is one of those stupid, stupid plastic bags slung somewhere. They are so injurious to horses and farm animals. Better to just wrap it up in some dock leaves or something and push it into a ditch, if you can't take it with you.

The trouble with stick and flick is dog poo can carry parvo virus. You might not be standing in it but dogs definately go out of their way to have a good sniff.

The streets where I lived (SW London) are disgusting in terms of dog poo. It's not fox poo, I can tell the difference. I had a pair of shoes completely unsalvageable after accidentally stepping in a pile outside my hairdressers over summer (literally unavoidable from the door). The hedge outside our house is also full of used poo bags and it stank over summer.

I have no idea why owners don't pick up.

I must admit it took us a while to get into the habit of making sure we had bags when we first got our dog. However we always cleared up - sometimes one of us would run home to grab a bag, we've scavenged for crisp packets (fairly useless) and my husband did once manage to clear one using a large leaf.

We have a park near us with free bags available at every bin and there's still a reasonable amount of poo to avoid.

Urban areas - always pick it up.

Rural areas tend to either toss it in a river, or stick and flick. I mean do you go and pick up all the cow shit you see?

I’ve got a small dog, and always pick up the poo with a compostable bag. I’ve never left the offending bag on a tree either as there’s always a bin nearby in urban areas/parks where I live.

I don’t understand the mindset of people who won’t pick up their dog poo in urban areas, including parks.

I’ve not heard of the stick flicking method before, but we aren’t at the stage of woodland walks yet.

Agree that people who pick up and leave the bag hanging in branches or whatever ARE almost worse.
I just can't understand this - surely the unpleasant bit is the picking up? Why would you not carry to the nearest bin!
For me, having to pick up steaming poo multiple times a day is one of the reasons why we don't have a dog!

I have nothing useful add but wanted to express my annoyance. If you don't pick up after your dog you're an arsehole and don't deserve a dog.

Dog and cat ownership has reached horrific levels in the U.K. No one seems to be able to do without them. We decided as a family to have neither, as I don’t want to be part of the problem. I can see it can be a lovely, life enhancing thing, but the impact is horrendous and becoming catastrophic. Our garden has cat poo in every morning; I have three DC under five and it’s such a worry. It’s so awful having to clean it up, makes me feel sick. We don’t get many birds at our bird feeder as, in our street of 15 houses, there must be approx 20 cats. I dread to think how many birds, mince etc are killed by them all. We have to dodge dog poo a lot, it’s not too bad on the pavements of our village as there as a been a huge crackdown by the community with lots of shaming online and people policing the streets, calling people out etc. Still the same number of disgusting lazy dirtbags around but after having life made difficult for them I think more and more find easier to just pick up. Dogs bark all day around here; that doesn’t bother me much though. The beautiful woods near our house have dog poo in regularly, my children love rambling through the undergrowth, excitedly pointing out mushrooms and all sorts, but sadly due to the ‘stick and flick’ brigade, this comes at a horrible cost. The truth is the pet ownership obsession has reduced the quality of life of life in Britain generally and that’s the truth. Most of these poor animals are fed kibble (which isn’t fit for consumption) rather than their natural diet of meat, offal, bones, scraps etc and therefore their poo is not the natural, harmless, quickly biodegrading matter that they would like to believe. It is toxic waste and harmful to people, animals, insects and plant life. My children have also had terrible experiences of big dogs bounding up and jumping up at them, many many times. Always fairly friendly but it’s terrifying to a child and who is shorter than the dog. My husband was bitten on the hand by a dog last year. We’ve had dogs come and dive into our picnic food, pee all over our towels at the beach.. I could go on!
Generally I am not one for advocating the government further encroaching on free choice, but at this point I think surely there will have to be an introduction of licensing soon, going back to the times when people would have to be pay a fee to own dogs and cats, because unlike chickens, cows etc, their impact is not mitigated by much that is positive. I understand for some they are much needed for company, mental health, in lieu of a child etc. But for many - did they really need to get a cat or dog??? People just do it unconsciously because it’s what everyone does.

I would say more often than not it's teenagers being asked/told to take the dog for a walk as part of their "chores". No unaccompanied teenager is bothering to pick up their dog's poo when noone is watching.

I know one lady who walks through the dog walking fields and collects other people’s dog poos and then bins it. It doesn’t make sense to me as it will be gone in a couple of days with all the bugs etc eating it. Yes, pick it up if on a street / public walking area but in a massive field (with no cattle / livestock grazing) the dog owners leave it to nature (stick and flick if it’s on the grassy footpath)

@UWhatNow I have a lot of experience in this area, that's all, and this does not sound like a guide dog owner. You have explained that the owner navigates with a white cane which means the dog is likely to be a pet.

Assistance dog users know very well when their dogs are poo-ing. Either the dogs are trained to spend in the gutter (spending is what it's called) or they go on the pavement and the owners pick it up. It's obvious to a guide dog owner when their dog is spending, and it's something that the owners will be conscious of, so your post sounded odd until you provided the extra context. Guide dog owners are almost always at the most responsible end of dog ownership as their dogs are so important to their independence and mobility and because of the bond that forms between a working dog and their owner.

The people likely to leave dog poo are the feckless who are unlikely to worm their dogs.
Old dog poo is very dangerous in this regard-
I think it’s called “Visceral larval migrans” that can cause blindness in children.
Roundworm eggs picked up in environment.

Agreed. Cats tend to try and bury theirs not leave it in the middle of the street.

'Rural areas tend to either toss it in a river, or stick and flick. I mean do you go and pick up all the cow shit you see?'

But cows don't tend to wander down public footpaths where erm, the public tend to wander and then stand in your dog shit.

Pick it up whether in towns or rural fgs.

If you are unable to pick dog shit up for whatever reason, make sure the dog is only going in your garden. Don't do it outside someone else's house and expect them to be OK with it cos of disability!

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

@Mol1628 not all cats bury their poo and my only experience is them leaving it on grass or planters.

I actively chase the cats from our garden, not sure why we should have to pick up poo from our grass when we don’t have an animal. Massive piles too hence my mild hatred of cats now 🤣

My dad years ago kept watching this man let the dog poo on this front lawn (no fence etc), so after a while stalked him home and then collected the poo. Went and put it on his front door step (tipped it out of the bags) and rang the doorbell. Asked him to pick up his dog poo and stop leaving it on his front lawn.

Shockingly we never saw him again 🤣😂

If you're not prepared to pick up your dog's poop, then I don't think you should own a dog.

We live rurally, and few people round here pick up poo. It's bloody grim stepping along footpaths trying to avoid it, especially since everyone appeared to get a lockdown dog so there's an awful lot more people walking locally.

I do have to say though that the "scoop it, bag it and hang it off a tree" offenders are the ones I'd like to play Hunger Games with.......

I agree about cats- they don't all bury, sometimes they try but only serve to scatter some soil around.

I have two rescue cats, but I make sure they only poop in my garden.

@Mol1628 @.@BelleMarionette I agree with OP, around here the cats do not bury their shit and there is a lot of cat shit around here. Grim. Get a litter tray.

Definitely not true!

@QuestionableMouse disabled people don’t get a free pass to do whatever they want. If you can’t pick up the poo, you shouldn’t be walking the dog. End of 🤷🏼‍♀️