(Top image: photo of Anne Main by Tim Ireland/PA Images; dog photo by Pezibear, via)
Dog walkers in the countryside have been encouraged to avoid bagging up their pooch’s poo, and to instead flick it into nearby undergrowth. Which would of course be totally fine if, when fresh, dog shit wasn’t the sort of consistency that can cause all kinds of problems when skewered with a twig.
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Conservative MP Anne Main will advocate the method during a Westminster debate today as a way of reducing the number of plastic bags littering the countryside. Mrs Main says that more signs are needed at the entrances of parks and open spaces so dog owners know what to do. She also says that shit-filled bags hanging from trees are a nationwide problem.
You’ll have to make your own minds up on that last point, but what’s certain is that the parasites in animal faeces can cause blindness in humans, so instead of trying to pancake flip shit into the bushes, it’s perhaps a wiser idea for dog owners to invest in some biodegradable dog poo bags?
Either way, Mrs Main, MP for St Albans, says the issue of poo-filled bags “is a massive problem” that is polluting the environment. “Like many people, I like to walk my dog out in the countryside, parks and in woodland,” she says, “but over the last few years I’ve noticed an increasing number of dog poo bags hanging off bushes, trees and railings – and it’s disgusting.”
BBC research found that local authorities in England and Wales received some 73,824 complaints about dog fouling in 2014-15. Anyone who fails to clear up after their dog can be issued with a fixed penalty notice. If the case goes to court, this could cost the owner or person in charge of the animal up to £1,000. Which is, after all, just another reason to actually pick up your dog’s shit and dispose of it in a sensible place.
But this, says Main, is the problem: “People think it’s the right thing to do to pick it up, but when they find there aren’t any bins, they jettison the poo-bag into the undergrowth or lob it over a garden fence where animals can eat them, children pick them up or cyclists ride into them.”
