I want to live my life with a heart like a dog, loving, trusting, forgiving. I really do. But I’m human after-all and sometimes I fail and when I fail, I usually fail miserably.
Wednesday when we entered the park I noticed a couple of posts had been hammered into the ground.
I wonder what they’re going to put on those? I said to Hubby, A sign that says no fires and no drinking in the park that the kids will promptly pull off and probably burn?
It was a flippant remark, half in jest, half-true. I’ve called and complained to the town about the kids smashing glass bottles, making bombs out of soda bottles and breaking off tree limbs in order to have a fire.
For the record, I haven’t complained about them smoking pot or having sex up there and leaving their used condoms in the field.
Just. For. The. Record. I want it to be known that I’m mean, but I’m not that mean. After all I was a kid once myself.
Thursday when we pulled up to the park, I found out what the sign posts were for.
- Why pick up after your pet?
- It is being a good neighbor.
- Vernon town ordinance 232, It’s the law. $25 fine per occurrence.
- It protects the environment.
- The average sized dog dropping produces 3 Billion Fecal Coliform Bacteria.
- Enough Said!
- To Learn More Please Take One.
Over on the left side of the path, was a lovely new Poop Station.
There’s a little sign next to this that says, “Compliments of the James Family.”
It was hot out. I was already hot. My temper got hot. So hot. I think I could have spit nails. I went from calm and collected to seven ways to pissed off. Why?
- It’s ostentatious. A nice poop station with some basic information about waste would be fine. (Although with the nimrods that walk their dogs up there, this might really be necessary.)
- It shows me the folks that are focusing on poop pick up don’t have a clear idea of why there’s so much unclaimed poop. I mean, how the hell can you pick up after your dog, if you have no idea where your dog actually is?
- People with dogs that use this entrance to the park are few. Not counting the people with the pugs who live four houses down and walk their pugs up there just to take a dump. And then leave it. My mother thinks he actually works for the town. They need to post this information at the illegal entrance to the park, the area where at least eight different dog owners enter, some who bring their dogs in just to let them pinch a loaf. Not one of them with leashes, never mind poop bags.
- Poop bags and pamphlets are just one more thing the kids will take and scatter about the park. In fact, I found about six of them out in the street yesterday when we went for our walk.
- Why are they focusing on dogs? Nobody goes in and gets pissed off because the deer crapped in the field, or the horse that left a huge land mine in the middle of the trail, that I needed Carabiners and ropes to climb over.
- One poop station at the entrance to a park. Maybe your dogs are trained to poop on command but mine aren’t. They usually crank a steamer in the middle of the park. I still have to carry that stinky bag through the park. Have I mentioned the bugs? There are bugs in the park and guess what? They like the smell of poop.
- Signs and poop bags are nice, but they don’t compare to two feet patrolling the park and actually ticketing people for letting their dogs drop ass wherever they want. If you want to put a stop to the problem you actually need to start ticketing people.
I’ve calmed down some since the initial viewing, which is a good thing. As I’m about to call the town and state my case and it’s always better if I do this when I’m wagging my tail instead of growling and snarling.
What pisses you off about where you walk your dog? Are there any situations where the powers in charge don’t seem to really have a grasp about the issue?
We are lucky that most people pick up around here. I do get really pissed when dogs poop in the middle of a trail or sidewalk and it is left there, or in the middle of the grassy area that everyone walks on in the park. I could care less if a dog goes off road into the bush to poop, people shouldn’t walk there anyway. There are always a few morons that ruin things for everyone. I would actually prefer to run into poop than the broken glass and trash that stupid kids leave around the area. That is seriously dangerous and bad for the environment. I think mostly dogless people just hate dogs and their owners and take it to the cities. They should take all that money they put into signage and use it towards several garbage cans along the trails. People are more motivated to pick up if they don’t have to carry it around all day!
Carrie needs to take a pic of the signs at our park. It shows a dog pooping. Hello! that’s more disturbing then stepping in poop itself. Poop pollutes, poop pollutes! It also makes good compost.
BOL… I saw one like that recently!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wantmorepuppies/9231609469/
I do need to go down and take pictures of the ones in the park. This one is from our local cemetery. https://www.flickr.com/photos/houndstooth4/5788226461/in/set-72157626444649872
I agree with you, if they’re going to post signs about dog waste, post signs telling people to throw away their trash, keep their kids from breaking stuff and enforce the rules. I know that a lot of the people who live around the park are turning their dogs loose to run wherever they want, so of course they are going to go in the park. I really wish they would enforce the leash laws here, as well as fining people for breaking noise and trash ordinances. But we don’t even have a police force here, so I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
Signs telling people that don’t pick up poop to pick up their poop are worthless. It’s like putting a sign on the refrigerator at work that says “don’t eat other peoples lunch”. DUH. I would have been pissed too. It’s unfortunate that people feel like it’s okay for their dog to poop in a park and not clean it up, but you can’t fix stupid. It’s should be about always doing the right thing, even when no one is looking – and some people just don’t, EVER. 🙁
Yes! With dog poop pickup, you’re often preaching to the choir. Those that don’t do it aren’t suddenly going to start just because of a bunch of signs. It’s very frustrating for those of us that do make sure to clean up after our pups… they give the rest of us a bad rep!
I hope I don’t get hammered for this but here is the one that makes me personally upset about dog poop. First of all, one waste station (and at the entrance of the park) is not enough. My dog has to walk usually a bit more before she does her thing. But my personal pet peeve is when my dog has diahrrea and it is IMPOSSIBLE to pick that poop up. I’ve had dog owners giving me the evil eye, but come on! You cannot pick up liquified poop. They act like their dogs never have diahrrea! Ok, this is way more poop talk that i intended to have today 🙂
I agree 100%! And even if you could clean it up, the stink would probably make you barf on top of it! I know my dogs’ diarrhea would! P-ewwww! 🙂
The area where I live is not dog friendly, and I don’t know of any public parks I could take my dogs walking in. Most parks are filled with bacteria spewing young children running through their snotty bodies through water sprinklers. And then at night, those teens you mentioned leave their evidence behind. I’ll take dog poop I can step over any day over that. Those signs are absurd. A couple of well placed trashcans should have been sufficient. Also – do you know who the James family is? What’s their vendetta against dogs? They have pet squirrels or something?
I feel your pain, believe me!! When I was volunteering regularly at the shelter last summer — before Ducky — I bought a tee shirt that says “There Is NO Poop Fairy … Scoop Your Poop … Grab it. Bag it. Toss it” I wore it the next day when I took Callie and Shadow to the park for a walk. I got A LOT of strange looks, but I didn’t care. I was prepared for my two girls’ packages and then some. One lady had the ****s to tell me “that’s what they have grounds people for. I’m NOT going to do their job!” I gave her a look that should have buried her 12 feet under me, and said something like “it’s YOUR responsibility to clean up after your own dog, regardless of where you are.” To which she responded with a flip of the bird behind her back, not even the courage to face me when she did it. Callie pooped shortly after that and I was sorely tempted to throw the bag at the bitch, but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to lower myself to her level. But I still wear the shirt at times. As for the “powers in charge”, I doubt seriously that any of them down here have a grip on reality…they’re too busy playing politics.
So many things to say about this. I hate picking up my dogs poop – but I do it – most of the time. For whatever reason, I have had two dogs who insisted on backing up into a bush to go and sometimes, I just can’t get it out of there and like the diarrhea, it’s just not possible. Poop bags are helpful, but trash cans would be a help as well – and multiple stations, not just one. But you made a point that really irks me as we have a LOT of horse trails – most of our trails around here are ‘horse trails’ and they leave big huge poops that my dogs love to eat! Why don’t they have to clean up after their horses?
Bureaucrats seem to have strange ideas about how to change people’s behavior patterns. You have to wonder how many live in the real world.
Mom gets very very upset too especially we live in such a beautiful community. There’s so much irresponsible dog owners out there. When we lived in the city during the winter it was horrible poops where everywhere. BTW how do you spit nails? You got to read my post today as I’ve announced our Scoop That Poop Campaign. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
I wonder how much all of that cost? I would be worried about the broken glass and used condoms too. Just as much as the dog poop at least.
The farm where we train does not want us to pick up the dog poop. We have had to retrain ourselves. It was difficult but liberating…teehee.
It ain’t the dogs here it the French people who think it is OK to let their kids do their stuff in the park when there are several toilets. I swear one day I am going to walk up with a poop bag and tell them to pick up. Yikes I am mad now. Have a marvellous Monday.
Best wishes Molly
Jodi you can’t fix stupid, but it never hurts to try…The lake across the street has four (maybe five) lovely “stations” just like yours around the 3 mile walking path, plus another 4 or 5 trashcans…Guess what? I still see piles of poop sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk…I’d love it if the city would get a poop patrol out there writing tickets
In our neighborhood, you MUST scoop the poop (according to the association). Does that mean that most people scoop the poop? No. Absolutely not. The people with the big dogs say it grosses them out…well, then don’t get a big dog (’cause they make big poop). Honestly, some people….
Oz
Okay, so… the number of phrases you used to say “poop” really has me laughing! I learned a few new ones, so thank you! 🙂 While I am a huge fan of poop stations, I don’t think they do anything to encourage people to pick up their dog’s poop if they never intended to pick it up in the first place. Those signs seem condescending to me. Having someone there to actually write tickets would probably nip that problem for good – even if they only showed up once a month or so!
URGH! I think the signs were a little extreme. Yes people should pick up after their pet if pooping on the trail but really off trail, sometimes like you said it is hard to know where they went if they are off leash. Sorry you had such a bad day but it was a really good post.
Oh, this is a peeve of mine, too–parks that get all high and mighty about people leaving poop, but have one (or even NO) trashcans. The park we walk in during the fall and winter has one trashcan, right in front of the visitor’s center, on the extreme far end of the road from most of the parking. Because nothing is going to encourage people to scoop like making them carry it a mile.
When I saw that photo of the row of signs, I laughed out loud. At the absurdity of it. Agree with what so many have said: you can’t fix stupid. Country girl here, so we do not routinely walk our dogs like so many of you. However, when we do, we pick up the poop. It’s a Golden Rule thing 🙂
How would you all like living next door to a police officer (that lets his dog run loose despite the county-wide-leash law) whose dog thinks YOUR little 6-acre space in this world is HER bathroom?
You know, that space where you feel free to roam and let your own LEASHED dogs leave it anywhere they want when they’re not in their fenced area of the backyard–since they’re raw-fed and their poop turns to white dust in a couple of days? (And, might I note, hers NEVER dries up any time soon, so you’re left trying to remember every spot she’s left from one mowing to the next.)
I’ll give everyone a clue, you can’t fix stupid with a bunch of signs, and you can’t fix the feelings of entitlement of those that have governmental power either. I definitely know where your 7 ways are coming from!!!
Good post and it does make me mad when people do not pick up after their dog. You would not believe the amount of people at the pet friendly motels that do not pick up after their dogs and then they wonder why pretty soon the motel will not allow pets…duh! A couple weeks ago I walked out to my van in parked in the driveway and what do I discover…a pile of poo right in my driveway…really you couldn’t even take a stick and push it in the road, better yet carry a bag with you and if you forgot go home get one and come back, glad I was watching where I walked.
I would think they would be concerned about some of those other issues in your park also. I think the signs were a bit much.
Oh wait I forgot to rant about the dog show people who don’t clean up after their dogs too 😉
Geez Jodi…I agree…we have the same problems in our woods, and the poop is quite literally, the least of it. I don’t blame you for being pissed off. 🙁
Hi Jodi,
We normally walk/run around our neighborhood and luckily most people pick up, however it would be really great if they had some poop bins scattered around so Mum could dispose of the the bags more often…..
Have a great day
Your pal Snoopy 🙂