To not pick up dog poo...

[Moonfishstar]

... when in a quiet forest, but to flick it with a stick into dense undergrowth instead?

I don't see any issue with this, but I've got a feeling lots will disagree with me, so I wanted to get some other opinions.

God I fucking despise the "stick and flick" brigade. There's no reasonable alternative to picking up your dog's shit and disposing of it appropriately. Other people shouldn't have to stay on paths and not let their children explore because you're a selfish pig.

If organisations like the forestry commission condone it, it's because it's a compromise to try to mitigate the problem of people just leaving turds in the middle of the paths, or festooning the trees with plastic bags full of shit. It's because, as a class, dog owners can't be trusted to behave decently and not ruin the environment for everyone.

If you’re feeding raw I hope you know EXACTLY what is in it.

Here is my horse’s muscle biopsy results when she was diagnosed with a Sarcocystis Fayeri infection.

It comes from ingesting dog faeces that is infected with the sarcosysts, which come from eating raw horse meat (that has a Sarcocystis Fayeri infection). A very specific dog-horse cycle.

My horse will have picked it up from grazing a bit of grass in the forestry where a dog has left mess that has either been left or not cleared properly.

It cost £2700 to treat, took 6m to get to the bottom of it and meant I lost the use of my horse for most of 2022 while it was ongoing.

Raw feeders please be educated.

I don't live in such an area so I don't know the etiquette, a few posters who live near forests, rural areas have said its fine not to pick up after your dog. I bought a tiny peddle bin to put in the boot of my car for such walks though maybe I should take a leaf from the locals and just start flicking. Jokes, I won't. I have a clip on the handle so I'm not carrying poo bags for miles.
I do think those signs are aimed at the hard of thinking though sorry OP! They know people don't pick up so encourage them to at least keep it off the pavements. I can't see any way that dog shit is good for the environment. It's toxic stuff.

I know this isn’t the point, but it’s a shame cat owners don’t have to clear up after their pets, who happily crap wherever they like and no, actually they don’t always bury it.

In deep remote countryside bury it with a stick, anywhere else bag it , bin it and TAKE IT HOME.

Pleas don't be like those idiots who dangle poo bags from trees.
The 'plastic' takes years to break down, despite what the manufacturers say.

LMGTFY

https://www.forestryengland.uk/dog-code

Edit: I see that lots of people have reposted this link too.

Particularly as the types to leave shit everywhere are the least likely to worm their dogs.
Worm eggs in old dog poo are far more dangerous than fresh.

If organisations like the forestry commission condone it, it's because it's a compromise to try to mitigate the problem of people just leaving turds in the middle of the paths

keep up with the thread.

The FC don't condone it and several posters have linked to their website.

@SabrinaThwaite There is the Forestry Commission and Forestry England.
They are different.

Your link shows Forestry England.

Yep, my father being one of them im sorry to say. I worm his dog. You would be surprised at the amount of people that don't bother to regularly worm.

It’s fine if there’s no chance of someone’s dog walking in it. I used to bury it using my welly if the ground was suitable. It’s obviously far more environmentally friendly than it ending up in a plastic bag in landfill.

Some people don’t use common sense.

And don’t hassle me about burying poo because my dogs are constantly walking through poo that others haven’t picked up!! It’s grim.

Cat poo is the worst thing in the world. It can be sort of sticky and clings to everything. Ugg it's disgusting and awful if you have young kids.

You are correct that not all cats bury their poo. People are very hypocritical about things like this though. If you let you cats crap in other peoples gardens then it's just a shitty (literally) than letting a dog shit and not picking it up.

I don't have cats or dogs but I'm not a cat or dog hater, I just hate people that don't clean up after their pets.

I'm not that fussed about the OPs situation though.

Absolutely right.

I'm really sorry about your horse.

It's far safer to cook the meat or fish to kill the parasites and bacteria.

If one has a 'Pets as Therapy ' dog, raw feeding isn't allowed because of the parasite/salmonella risk to vulnerable patients.

Cooking to remove pathogens is important.

By all means feed human grade meats and fish {as we do} but cook the stuff beforehand, and bag and bin the poo.

Holy cow that's terrifying, I've never heard of it (and I'm quite an experienced dog and horse owner with quite a lot of pieces of paper saying I know my way around horses). Can I ask you what her symptoms were, and what treatment is, please?

I suspect cases are higher these days because so many people do feed raw.

I listened to a raw product feed rep once. He talked absolute unscientific bobbins about kibble, I know that much. There is so much variety of quality dog food on the market these days that nobody needs to risk salmonella and risk malnutrition in their dogs (easy to do if feeding raw that isn't a commercial blended product). Plus your story... 😨

Can't say I see much on the Forestry Commission website about dogs. But, since you can't research yourself, here's a fairly recent document entitled "Keepers of time: ancient and native woodland and trees policy in England. Government’s statement on England’s ancient and native woodland and ancient and veteran trees":

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/628f7bdfe90e070394dbc10f/Keepers_of_time_woodlands_and_trees_policy_England.pdf

On page 17: "Dogs can disturb wildlife and cause enrichment of soils if owners do not remove dog waste."

Honest question, what type of ground is suitable to bury dog poo in with your welly?? I can't imagine it! Do you mean kick some leaves over it in the autumn?

Yes - Forestry England manages publicly owned woodland in England on behalf of the Forestry Commission.

The Forestry Commission was split up several years ago, with Scotland and Wales coming under different government jurisdiction now.

OP specifically said they used Forestry England woodland.

Not to mention the ammonia generated by farm animals.( absorbed by planting trees btw)
We are a long way off from an ideal world of only organic farming and veganism.
Its all about doing what we can and a few lifestyle changes in, for example, only buying organic and reducing meat consumption would help the environment, including our woodlands ( esp given the damage pesticides do )

In terms of the OPs post, we follow the woodlands guidance.
We only use woodlands that we are allowed to as many do not give access. We do not allow children to stray off the path running over roots and disturbing nature.

We follow the guidance, which states move dog poo off the path to the side
Do not bag and hang!
One woodland has a long explanation about how long it takes ‘so-called’ biodegradable bags to actually break down. So they too prefer the flick method.

At least some National Parks are also against using ‘stick and flick’:

Leaving poo bags on trees is disgusting but ‘sticking and flicking’ really isn’t much better. We know that the vast majority of dog owners love the countryside and would be devastated to think they, and their animals were causing harm.

Dog poo is bad for people and bad for the countryside. Good dog owners know to bag and bin it – any bin will do.

https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/whats-the-scoop-on-picking-up-poop/

Little wonder when you read this:

Henry Rawlings collected more than 88lb (40kg) of faeces during a 65-mile (105km) sponsored walk of the Serpent Trail in the South Downs National Park.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-64281652.amp

Re Cat Poo

I saw my young dog chow down an unburied cat turd , and was repulsed.

I assumed as she was on a three month worming schedule that she'd be protected.

WRONG!

A few weeks after ingesting the cat poo, she passed a LIVE roundworm in her poo.

I was disgusted and marched to the vets to say that the wormers weren't working.

They said that unlike the tick and flea treatments, wormers don't have any residual effect.

All wormers do is knock out the hatched worms in the gut... If the dog eats a worm egg from the environment a few days later, then the dog will get infested when the eggs hatch.

They said as ours scavenged , to put her on a more regular worming cycle ~ once a month as opposed to three months.

Thankfully haven't seen any worms before or since.

Cats tend to crap without burying it, huge clayey turds that really reek.

Someone I knew via work was talking about the ignorant lots that don't pick up their dog shit. She was saying her little baby about 2 fell into dog mess as playing in the park where children often played and families sat. Then a few years later they were out i the woods with their children who were throwing around a small ball and went to get it in bushes and steeped in the biggest pile of dog shit ever.

It is time this offence was taken seriously as why should people, children and its outside schools as well, dog shit left on pavements, and roads - kids/adults step in it and scrape it along the road - lets make it mandatory that those caught are named and shamed, again and again until they see sense or lock them up. It's nasty, its disgusting its sick and children do become ill from this..

I actually don’t give a shit… excuse the pun. At least I make sure it’s not on the path. Unlike effing cat owners who let them shit in my garden… now that’s not nice for my kids

Pick the fucking shit up! I appreciate that this is different to a pedestrian path where loads of people walk, but I've stepped in/almost stepped in crap about 4 times this week and it's a right pain to clean prams, kids/my shoes etcetera afterwards.

Forestry England is a division of Foresty Commission though. It's responsible for promoting and managing publicly owned forests in England. I'm certain that they wouldn't say something that wasn't in alignment with FC.

FE (or as far as I was concerned, FC) certainly, definitely, 100% used to promote get a stick and flick on noticeboards across at least several of their sites. I was (still am) a regular at several of their sites, and I followed their principals. I wasn't actually aware that they had changed principals, although I had already changed behaviour myself, having listened to a radio documentary about the effect that dog poo was having on wildlife and plant biodiversity😔which had started to become a significant problem with the increase in dog ownership over recent years (and the documentary was a few years ago, dog ownership has definitely increased even more since then).