Finally I have succumbed to the dog poo rant.
It really pisses me off when dog owners carefully pick up
the dog poo wrap it securely in the bag and then leave the bag at the side or
(occasionally) in the middle of the path, draped on fences, hanging by
gates/stiles and many other variations.
Worse there is the chuck it out of sight into the undergrowth brigade.
Now I appreciate in their feeble minds they think that they
will pick it up on their way back home and the woman who left the bright pink
bag on the path two yards from the back of my boat did indeed do just
that. EVENTUALLY This is all well and good when they do
but often on a walk you don’t come back
the same way, you might have intended to when you set off but the day is lovely
you are enjoying yourself so you change your mind and do a circular walk
instead. What happens to that lovely
parcel you left behind? Well it stays
there, and from the state of the path I walked the other day the bags get
absorbed into the path structure when it is wet and muddy until all you see on
the ground on a dry day are corners of bags sticking out saying take me home
you imbecile.
If you have done the hard part of picking up the dog poo
into a bag then carry it with you until you either get home or find a proper
dog poo bin. (and I don’t mean in a
discarded trunk left presumably by an equally inconsiderate boater from whence
it will never be collected).
For all they say that some bags are bio-degradable they are
not really. What happens is they
gradually degrade into smaller and smaller pieces until they are tiny little
balls. So we can’t see it any more and therefore it no longer exists. But it does exist and the sea is full of
these floating little darlings.
And as for chucking it into the undergrowth in a bag. .
. Wrong.
I recently heard of two horses that died and their autopsy showed their
stomachs were full of dog poo bags that had been thrown into their field. Apparently horses are attracted to the cereal
content of dog poo and not having opposable thumbs end up eating the whole
bag. If horses are so attracted
presumably out in the countryside do are deer and other herbivores.
So if you are a supposed animal lover and
presumably are because you have a dog, don’t throw a bag into the undergrowth.
As far as I am concerned bags are only for removing dog poo
from built up areas.
Where there is a
hedge use a small trowel and removing the offending article from the path where
someone might step on it, place it out of the way under the hedge where it can
decompose naturally.
On the towpath also
remove it from the area between the path and the canal because although you the
dog owner are not going to walk in it.
The likelihood is some poor unsuspecting boat owner will when they are
mooring up.
They have other things on
their minds at this point.
Stepping in
it is one thing but when your ropes land on a fresh one. YUK
Oh
and while I am thinking about it could owners of male dogs please stop them
from peeing on mooring bollards – especially when there are boat ropes around
them, ditto water points, boaters chairs, shopping bags – generally anything upstanding that the dogs might
feel the need to scent mark, that either belongs to someone or someone might handle.
The other day walking around a reservoir we saw three
identical white bags – clearly someone with more than one dog. One draped on the fence, later on one at the
side of the path and further on still the last one at a junction. As we were turning around at this point the
dog poo fairy (aka my partner) picked all three up and deposited them in the
bin back at the carpark. So the dog poo fairy does exist but he cannot be everywhere.
To balance this I saw a boat at a lock and the woman on
board walked to the front of her boat opened one of the front lockers and took
out about 20 small bags which she put into the correct bin. So I know there are some good dog owners out
there but I am afraid you might be outnumbered by the wronguns.
And yes I do like dogs - it is the owners that fall short in my estimation.
