To think it is long overdue that we brought in dog licencing

[Eurghh]

This is not a dog-bashing thread.

Dog poo is a massive issue in the UK - I agree some areas are worse than others, but i have lived in various places, holidayed all over, and it really is pretty bad pretty much everywhere. This country is already on its knees with paying for services out of the public fund, but SOMETHING has to be done about the huge number of people who let their dogs mess on the ground for the rest of us to contend with.

I think we need to bring back licences, which will pay for:

• dog wardens to regularly patrol problem areas, and issue fines
• a nightly hose down of pavements in problem areas and also all around pavements leading to schools
• cctv to identify people who don't pick up after their dogs
• dna database

All of this needs to be funded by dog licences.

YABU - the system is fine as it is
YANBU - please bring in licences for dog owners

Atttached to show a photo I took today which prompted me to write this, this quantity of poo is common round here, and I live in a naice well-to-do London borough.

I'd happily pay for a licence for mine. Honestly though, it won't work. The admin behind tracking down dog owners and getting them to pay is just unfathomable. Think about the logistics -there are thousands and thousands of dogs in the UK who are not registered with vets, not microchipped and have been purchased through dodgy dealers. How do you even start to find out who has one? If they say they don't? Do you take those who won't pay to court? What about those who can't afford to pay? Are their dogs destroyed?
£100 a year (from those who would pay) won't even touch the sides of covering the costs of daily wardens, admin, dna databases, prosecution, street cleaners etc across the entire UK.
I don't disagree with you at all, but it's logistically not that simple unfortunately.

How do we deal with people who don't have a driving licence?

Owners will be forced to pay, or have the dog removed - I think the XL problem needs to be dealt with swiftly, by way of euthanasia - those dogs have no place in society, and then there is room for the others, the normal breeds. The amount of money spent on housing XL Bullies could be funding something far more worthwhile, I am sure everyone agrees.
I don't think euthanasia of dogs is any worse than killing other animals though, which this country does every day, behind closed doors. Definitely something to think about.

Lol yeah but there's nothing they and the royal mail can do, obviously we get told if we don't feel safe delivering somewhere we can mark it as inaccessible which is great for loose dogs, dangerous paths and stuff. But if I marked every house that's got dog shit near it as inaccessible no one would ever get any mail and I'd lose my job.

Totally agree, high time those who have dogs pay for the social cost of cleaning up after them (and I am a dog owner, it’s a choice, I do pick up but am sick of crap smearwd streets because of those that don’t).

Bring it on. (dog owner)

They will have to work it out. Backyard breeders will be banned. Prison if found to be BB.
Massive clamp down. If people can't afford the licence, they can't afford a dog.

Once the project gets started, there will be some money to deal with the dog poo on the streets in the immediate, but also deal with getting a database sorted, and between vets and breeders, a list compiled. Everyone has to pay. Or you don't keep the dog. Then we find those who got theor dog from a backyard breeder, and we clamp down on the breeders, and bill the owners double.

The language around "destroying" dogs is very emotive - far more than the language we use about slaughtering (humanely, apparently!) farmed animals. I wish we'd view these animals more similarly!

I am really sorry to hear that. I hope we can find a solution.

I do agree with you but if I remember correctly, it used to be a lot worse. When I was a kid ,45-50 years ago, a lot of people had dogs but they used to run loose, as in not walked on a lead, just let to run loose and find their way home whenever they wanted. That's when crap on the streets was obviously much worse. It still happens when dogs are walked, but not on the scale that I remember.
You go to a place like Rome, where dogs just roam freely, and you'll see a lot more shit than you do over here.

And completely agree with licensing!

Services like what, that you don't use?

I am around the same age as you, and I disagree that it was worse. I don't live far from where I grew up, so it's not an area thing.

I have been to Rome, didn't actually notice any roaming dogs. Nor was the shit at the volume that it is round here.

I am not saying I have all the answers, but I do think it is out of control and something needs to be done.

If you don't pay car tax the car gets impounded, and then if you don't pay the release fine the car gets destroyed. The same could work for dogs.

I don’t object in principle,but it will only be responsible owners who get a licence and we don’t have the resources to police it.

It used to work, so it’s clearly not impossible.
£250 a year, with a reduction to £100 if you register with a vet and get the animal chipped and neutered, perhaps?

Unregistered dogs impounded, destroyed after 6 weeks if not claimed? That might light a fire under the arses of those supposed dog lovers who won’t do the minimum to train and look after their pets.

We have too many dogs and cats compared with the number of people prepared to look after them properly. The charities are bursting at the seams with unwanted animals.

Dogs in particular who aren’t properly trained and socialised by uninformed owners who just see “Aww, cute puppy” are a problem. With people at work all day and the “cute” breeds often being bred from active, inquisitive working breeds in need of stimulation, you end up with poorly behaved, over-excited dogs with no recall running about in public spaces and crapping in parks and playgrounds a long way from their owners.

It’s unfair on the dogs and it’s unfair on everyone else.

Responsible pet owners are their animals get tarred with the same brush as dingbats who buy a puppy or a kitten from a friend of a friend and have no idea what they are doing.

I used to live in Berlin, where a licence is needed to own a dog.

The level of dog poo on the streets was off the scale. It made the UK look pristine. You always had to watch where you were walking or you’d step in it.

Have you ever met any of the actual British public, outside of Mumsnet extremists? Lol. That isn't happening don't be so gormless.

To be honest as bad as so e dog owners are, things are a lot better now then they were in the 1970s when we did have a dog license scheme. It was when we had dog licences that packs of dogs roamed the streets all day because people chucked them out when they went to work in the morning and let them back in at tea time. We were occasionally locked inside at primary school while teachers chased dogs away with buckets of water that were mating in the playground. It was a pointless scheme and did absolutely nothing having a dog licence. In fact those were some of the most grim years in dog ownership in the uk. What would a license look like today and how would it be enforced? What if people refuse to buy one? With prisons full and dog pounds full what are they actually going to do to enforce it? There's nowhere to lock owners up if they refuse and there's nowhere to lock their dogs up I til they pay. Don't get me wrong, as a dog owner I'm in favour of some sort of registered ownership scheme but i just don't see how it is going to work. Ultimately the real problem is that owning a dog is a right. It should be a privilege that comes with understanding your responsibility to the dog and society.

Not heard the word gormless in ages.

If someone doesn't clean up their dog's shit, their dog should be confiscated. Maybe the licence fee could provide places for these dogs to go. But there isn't going to be limitless space is there? So people will learn, if you want to keep your dog, clean up its shit.

It's still not going to happen.

You should go to Paris. There's dog shit absolutely everywhere on the streets there. 🤢

I feel like I was constantly standing in dog poo in the seventies and eighties. However it is still a big problem. There would have to be a lot of wardens on the streets to catch people in the act and I think people who don’t care about letting their dogs foul are to not that likely to bother paying.

People seem to pay thousands for dogs and still are terrible anti-social dog owners so I’m not sure the argument stands that a license would stop irresponsible people from getting a dog. I suppose it might stop some people.

It's ridiculous near us

The school walk is littered with dog poo

You mean, the dog licencing that was a thing until 1987? That was abandoned then because:

1. It was widely ignored, with only about 50% of dog owners buying a licence.
2. It was impossible to enforce.
3. The cost of enforcing would be exorbitant.

I know everyone thinks they've thought of a way to make the twats who don't clean up after their dogs, have out of control/dangerous/etc dogs behave themselves - but it wouldn't. It would only be obeyed by the responsible owners.

For that reason, YABU.

I forgot about being locked in school! Also my mum chucking water at random make dogs circling the house because our dog was in season.