Streetlife

I've had the same problem near where I live .. always the same people  who think no one is watching and so just don't bother (so awful!). I'm a dog owner myself and it enrages me because it gives all of us a bad reputation. I found taking a photo of them and their dog with my phone effective ... 

We have a chap who walks his dogs away from where he lives but right outside where I live.  Two golden retrievers or, as he puts it - his gun dogs, who can sh1t where they please!  I have offered nappy sacks (cheap alternative to pooper scooper bags - 200 or 250 for 29p).  I have thrust carrier bags at him .. the last time I said I was recording him and it was £1,000 each time he was reported and fined.  Chump change apparently according to him.  He still walks near where I live but not where he can be recorded.

You will never get some people to be clean.

I have 2 black Labradors whom I trot around our block twice a day and then in Battersea Park  in the afternoon. I have noted that my circular trot around the block sees no dog poop anywhere at any time but know that a road away where the homes are a lot more expensive the poop levels are high.Why is this? I carry nappy sacks in all my pockets and in the park if anyone has forgotten one they are grateful for the extra as it's not impossible to forget. We did have one chap with a rottie who always pooped outside our front gate until I yelled at him and gave hom a bag of sacks. He doesn't come anymore. It is not difficult to clear up after your dog so why doesn't everybody do it

I moved into this area around 10 years ago and initially was horrified at the amount of dog mess left on the pavements. Nothing has changed except I am used to it now, but if I live to be 100 I'll NEVER understand how anyone can just let their dog poo, then walk away like it didn't happen. What about toddlers? Old people and the visually impaired? Don't these people have  rights? Well according to SOME dog owners the answer is *no, they don't*

It's unfortunate that some dog owner do this. As said, it just makes the responsible ones look bad.

As in most areas of life - it is the 1% irresponsible minority who spoil it for the majority :-(

I know this is going to annoy some people but we should stop calling them pets and replace that word with animal slavery.

Vivian B, you are absolutely right when you say "You will never get some people to be clean".

 They may look and speak like respectable people, or they may be jack the lad types. On the other hand they may be very beautiful people to look at, or they may be a bit rough round the edges, but they all have one thing in common "they will never be clean" and we live amongst them, and sometimes we know who they are, but one things for certain, they're dirty on the inside and THEY know who they are.

Visually impaired people don't actually have to pick up their dog mess by law. However, I have been asked in the park by a blind man to pick up his dog's poop so it's not always them. Ged, I do object to calling dogs animal slavery as mine are treated really well within the home as part of the family. I do however fume when I see dog mess interfering with the lives of children and anybody else who steps in it. I even have a spray to harden the stuff in case, heaven forbid, mine should have the runs.

Cathy,

That is exactly the same argument we had when we used the Africans as slaves or when the Romans used us a slaves.

Pets equal animal slavery? Huh?  Get a grip people..... Dogs are part of the family.  Cat's do as they please. The pet's I've had have never had to sully their paws with tasks or demands from me.. They were loved and loved in return.

Anna,

Stop feeding them and see how quickly their 'love' for you disappears. Let the dog off the lead and see how quickly it deserts you. You have your opinion on the matter and I have mine.

I think (as an animal lover) I'm still with Anna on this one.  It seems quite plausible to me that cats and dogs chose originally to hang round with humans because there was a chance of food and warmth.  Now they have settled in quite comfortably and live an easy life for the most part.  Their numbers have increased and they have spread across the world.  Now, I don't know a lot about species motivation/survival issues but it seems to me that, by most animal standards, dogs and cats are doing rather well, living alongside humans for maybe the last 10,000 years.  I think you have to stretch your sense of outrage quite far to include them (even in principle) among the abused.

Caroline,

I'm not outraged at anything. I have no problem with people associating themselves with animals but why do we need to keep them on a lead if they are so loyal? Why do we cage birds to stop them flying away? We take tropical fish out of the sea because they look pretty in the glass cage we keep them in. If that isn't slavery, what is? We even breed animals so we can slaughter them to feed our 'pets'. I'm not telling anyone what they should do but, at the same time, I'm not going to pretend that keeping 'pets' is anything other than slavery because we have a need to have them as ours. We do this by feeding them and keeping them warm and depriving them of their instincts to fend for themselves.

Caroline, I love your romantic notion that 15,000 years ago some dogs came wandering into a human settlement and sat down by the fire!  

The reality is that humans created a subspecies by domesticating the gray wolf.  I doubt very much the wolves were at all keen on the idea at the start, but of course domestication is by definition self-fulfilling - in each generation you identify the animals which most strongly exhibit the traits you like, and breed them together, disposing of the others.  The end result is that a modern domestic dog is entirely a human creation, incapable of surviving in the wild and totally dependent on humans for its existence.

Personally I don't have any interest in having pets of any kind, but I certainly don't buy into bleeding heart "pets are slaves" or "meat is murder" nonsense.  I will start worrying about animal welfare when all 7 billion humans are happy and healthy.

And Jane as to your question, other than by very heavy-handed registration/tagging/taxation/licensing processes (which would be uneconomic, and political suicide for anyone who attempted to introduce them) I'm really not sure what can be done.  Given the difficulty in matching mess to dog and then dog to owner a name-and-shame approach is probably not possible either, sadly.

Thanks, Matthew, for bringing the topic back on track.  I agree that licensing probably won't work but perhaps compulsory chipping might.  I sometimes think that by having rotating blitzes  on various aspects of antisocial lawbreaking might make us all a bit more thoughtful.  Equally, control of sale of dogs with an element of dog training might help?

All eyes will be on N. Ireland then I suppose.

My road has dozens of fresh lumps of dog crap deposited every morning. I am a late riser (read "lazy"), so I haven't caught the culprits yet. One of these days though I will get out there in my dressing gown and rollers and a rolling pin ....

I'd like to see compulsory dog-chipping, but only for certain types of dogs. Most responsible dog-loving owners will already have chipped their dogs so that they can be traced home if they go missing/stolen.  

Matthew,

I can't disagree with anything you have said. I would have to add that I am an omnivore like the majority of us. As to 'bleeding hearts', you are entitled to your opinion on that matter as I am entitled to my opinion on 'slave animals'. It's funny how words to describe a situation can take away the truth of the matter as in the term 'collateral damage' which, in non-political speech means the deaths of civilians. I see the same twisting of the truth in the use of the term 'pets'.

My husband and I are so fed up with dog mess in the middle of pavements on the way to Putney Common that we've started to pick it up ourselves (we have 2 dogs of our own, so always have a handy roll of "poo bags").  It's not nice but it takes 10 seconds, and if we don't it will still be there hours later, usually treaded in by some poor unfortunate. 

It doesn't solve the root cause, but there's no real solution to that other than shaming those who don't pick up (and in my 6 years of owning a dog in Putney, I've never managed to catch the culprits).

Am I alone in thinking that this string sums up the worst about Streetlife, with its ranting, unhelpful, irrelevant comments and is the reason I am not going to belong any more.  Whoever Streetlife is controlled/managed by should nip this sort of thing in the bud as it is ruining a great idea.   

Georgie, erm did you post this on the wrong thread?  I don't see anything I'd call "ranting" on here, and the most irrelevant/unhelpful comment on here so far is yours - everyone else is at least talking about dogs and their owners.

I'm sure the opinions expressed on here so far haven't all been what Jane wanted to hear when she started the conversation, but I think she's grown up enough to cope :-)

If you don't like this thread, don't read it.  Or better still, use the "options" button at the top of the conversation and hide it completely then you'll never see it again.

A couple of off-topic personal remarks were removed from this thread. Any user can report content to us by clicking the options button on the right of each comment, and as Matthew G. says, you can also hide conversations entirely via the options button at the top of the conversation.

Actually I think it's pretty gross to have to pick up a dog turd (i would never have a dog) so I am amazed and grateful that people do so very often without any reminders at all. 20 years ago, the streets and commons really were full of the stuff and there has been a major change in attitudes and bahvaiour which we should celebrate. There will always be some selfish people but most dog owners are really responsible.

I had to wonder what I was seeing on a trip to the local park the other day, bright green patches all over the place? It turned out that the council have been going round spraying the dog poo, with bright green paint ! ( I asume water soluble so it will dissapear).  The idea is to shame irresponsible dog owners in to picking up after their pets. I have had two German Shepards over the years , and now have 2 Jack Russels, and always pick up anything they leave.