Dog Doings

[+miles58]

Just a quick note. poop from a meat eating animal, (this includes dogs of all kinds, cats of all kinds, bears, etc....and people too) Is more dangerous than poop from herbavores. (animals that eat only plants) because of the e-coli that is excreted from the body. This is not present in horse, cow, deer, or others plant eating animals excrement.

 

That is not to say that animals should not be cleaned up after. use common sense. if it's on a trail or around a cache....clean it up. If its in the wild, let the natural cleaner-uppers do it.

 

This is dead wrong.

[+Team Snoopy]

I think the OP (original poster) needs to take his argument to his city council, or head honchoes of where ever he is finding all this dog poop and tell them to do something about it! He needs to help his parks put in more garbage cans or those poop mitt things and such. Complaining to us is not going to solve the problem!

[+Team Tigger International]

Dog poop ?

 

I think I have come across more raccoon poop on the caching trails then dog poop!

 

Silly inconsiderate little bandits anyway ...... They must think they own the woods or something !

 

Star

[+Team Red Oak]

After living in Germany the past 7 years and traveling to Paris, Edinburgh, Salzburg, York, Berlin, Turku (Finland) and many other European cities I can say that finding poo on the sidewalk is normal. Most city dwellings don't have a front yard. Many times the sidewalk goes right up to the front of the house and if there is any type of yard in the front, it will be a very small garden. The "yard" tends to be in the back of the home with a gate that locks so only the owners can go there. There is no strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street like we have in most suburbs. In the large cities there are many apartments with no yard so dog owners allow the dog to relieve itself anywhere. Just as a man can pee discreetly on the street you will find doggy doo. Most Europeans are used to this and are unconcerned with it, otherwise there would be laws against it. I wonder if the original poster is an American living & working in England as I was in Germany. If so, she better get used to living closely with her neighbors. If she is actually a British citizen, I wonder where she grew up, it certainly wasn't in the city and she must have led a sheltered life to not encounter much poo before.

 

I am not trying to take sides, I am just trying to explain how things are because I've seen a lot of flame that really didn't have to be said. There are cultural differences with the way we as Americans perceive things and the way most Europeans perceive things. It is just how it is and unless she can change the way of thinking for an entire country she will just have to teach her daughter how to avoid the poo.

 

For the record I am not a dog owner and I don't mind seeing poo in the wild. The only place where dog poo really irritates me is when I find it in my own yard.

[+WalruZ]

and as a competing explaination, in American urban areas it's usually against the law to leave your dog's poo laying on the sidewalk. You're expected to bring along some sort of scoop or bag and take it with you. Even though it's unlikely that you would actually be cited (the police are usually busy elsewhere), people who leave dog poo laying on the sidewalk are generally considered to be boorish, uncouth, thoughtless and rude.

 

Dog poo in the park is more of a fact of life, although parks in my area also have regulations and signage exhorting dog owners to clean up after themselves. Some do, some don't.

 

My advice is to start doing more Geocaches out in the woods. There's more poo, but it's spread out over a wider area so it's less noticable.

[+ChicagoCanineCrew]

As a dog owner who takes his dog out caching frequently, let me warn you that when we are in an outdoor situation where deer and other animals are defecating freely, my dog makes his own ecological contributions which are left where they stand. OK, if they are on the trail I will flip them aside, but if we are in the "wilderness" then I do not clean up after him. On the other hand, when I walk said pooch around my neighborhood I ALWAYS clean up after him, and I do the same whenever I am in a park or other people-centric location, or if the trail we are using is heavily traveled. I wish I could say the same about my neighbor, who appears to have trained his dog to unload anywhere BUT his own yard  . My point here is that animal feces are as much a feature of the outdoors as the lovely trees, the sky, and the birds. Not as attractive, I'll grant you, but every bit as important, and every bit as natural. As earlier posters mentioned, his droppings actually enhance the environment from a fertilization standpoint, and they will break down quickly.

 

Please reconsider... Dog feces are NOT in the same category as wild animal droppings, unless you feed your dog a wholly raw diet. Dog waste does not biodegrade like wild animal waste does, because of the diet that domestic dogs eat. It can also pollute the water and cause illness in other dogs. It can be detrimental to plant life (it doesn't make good fertilizer at all!!)

 

At the very least, please be a responsible dog owners by picking up your dog's waste. If you (dog owners in general) want to go a step further and help keep parks and forest preserves open to dogs in the future you may even consider carrying extra baggies (they do make biodegradable ones by the way) and picking up any other dog waste you find in trails or other well-travelled areas...

In many locations it is illegal to not pick up after your dog, and this does not just apply to sidewalks.

Edited June 3, 2005 by ChicagoCanineCrew

[+Alan2]

This reminds me of what my dad use to say when I was a kid about things like this,"It's good thing cows don't fly!"

[+TotemLake]

...or elephants.