a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: PICK UP YOUR POOP!

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

PICK UP YOUR POOP!

SUMMARY: Why is this so hard?
I know that I'm preaching to the choir here, but WHY is it so hard for people to pick up their dog's poo? OK, maybe you left your bags at home--but aren't there ALWAYS plastic bags lying around in the nearby shrubs? (Well, maybe that'll be fixed as more cities vote to outlaw one-use plastic bags, as they're doing around here.)

But please explain the two I picked up this morning within 5 feet of the poop-bag dispensing station at the park entry? And one ON the sidewalk about 20 feet away? And two more about one foot off the path 30 feet down? You know that those dogs are probably on leash and their owners probably saw them poop.

I walked a straight line through the middle of the huge grassy field and picked up three more. Picked up a couple (as usual) within 10 feet of the garbage can. Left a couple because I was out of bags (even took a couple from their dispenser) and tired of picking up poop.

Who knew there were so many people in this neighborhood with such severe mental and/or physical handicaps that they can't figure out how to pick up their dogs' leavings? As a public service for those to whom it has NEVER OCCURRED for some reason to do this task, herewith:

How to Pick Up Your Dog's Waste/poo/poop/feces/shit:

1. Insert hand into cute designer plastic bag from dispenser.


2. Grab not-so-cute deposit from ground.

3. Invert bag with a sophisticated flourish.

4. Tie cute designer knot and drop into nearby designer receptacle.

[Note that this is NOT the schoolyard a mile away where I and others play off-leash with our dogs, which is always clean of poo. I don't get it, I don't, I don't.]

7 comments:

  1. Are you aware of the studies that show that graffiti begets graffiti and trash begets trash? The premise being that, if there's graffiti/trash/dog s*#t, it must be OK for me to inflict *my* graffiti/trash/dog s*#t.

    Of course, it all starts with someone who decides that the rules don't apply to them.

    I've been to a dog park that gets completely overrun with poop EVERY NIGHT. There are scoopers and trash cans in the middle of each of the 4 sides. And that seems to be exactly where the doggies choose to leave their decorations. And that's where their humans choose to leave them. One morning I saw 5 piles all within 4 feet of the scooper and receptacle. So, I paid attention one day and, sure enough, EVERY dog that decorated the park with a human who left it behind lived in the apartments near the park. They'd all decided that the dog park was their doggies personal potty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's a plant biologist in Boulder that mapped dog poop piles along a popular hiking trail (Mt. Sanitas): http://www.myxyz.org/phmurphy/dog/Sanitas.htm

    I hardly ever go on that trail and last time I did about a year or so ago I had to agree that it was truly disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, amazing, thanks for the link.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I see it at our park too, where there are at least two poles with designer bags. I'm just grateful there are bags there because sometimes I forget to bring one and Katie always does a job as soon as she's out of the car. Even if she did one at home.

    People are just irresponsible.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good point from Steph, the broken window theory in action... I can understand some people not *seeing* their dog do their thing if they're in conversation with another dogwalker or whatever, but that's still not an excuse -- people should be keeping one eye on their dog at all times anyway. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  6. p.s. the verification word for this post was, I kid you not, "outened"

    heheheh :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love making up my own verb forms. Outified? Outulated?

    ReplyDelete