Scoop the Poop

I am a dog owner. I am forever finding black plastic bags in my pockets. I don't leave the house without checking I have a supply of them. If I am found short on a walk, I have asked other dog walkers for a bag or even returned home to collect some to pick up my dog's doings.

You see, the vast majority of dog walks are effectively toilet trips and most do not walk more than twenty minutes from their front door on an average "comfort break" walk. It therefore needs to be remembered, as you pick your way around the steaming piles of dog waste that litter the pavement in front of your house; the dog owners responsible for these hazards, probably live in your building. This is not being a good neighbour. This is not being a good member of the community, this is not acceptable., and as ever, the persistent cry goes up "something must be done".

I used to work in politics. I once heard a politician talking with great pomposity about the basic, fundamental issues that politics needed to address in his local area. What his Council must do to satisfy the electorate. He listed grand generic political philosophies on the free market. I retorted that if you sort out the problems of dog poo, broken paving slabs and street lights people will vote for you until the day you die. It is sad to think that we expect our local representatives to resolve the issue of doggie do...perhaps, if we encouraged our neighbours to clean up after their dog, made the effort to pick up our own dog mess, then maybe, just maybe, our local neighbourhood would be a more enjoyable environment for all.