Here are the most common diseases you can get from Fido.
Note: I think all but Ringworm, Scabies, Rabies and Lyme can be spread by feces.
Versus all the other cute woodland creatures who have sauntered through and dropped a present or two in the park.
The lists come from here and again, not ALL are spread by feces.
I would imagine that if a dog has something like parvo, it would be very prudent to remove the fecal pile. Of course, some of the virii probably would’ve rubbed off onto the grass/soil, but leaving it there would allow for a much larger amount of virii to be present for reinfecting other animals.
I can see how, at places like dog parks or even anywhere in general, that removing the bulk would reduce spread and chance of infecting other animals significantly. Of course, vaccinating all animals that spread such a pathogen would prevent infection, but plenty of folks don’t bother with such. So a policy/habit of removal of the bulk, particularly in public areas, surely helps keep size of parvo-laden area down much more than the parvo-laced feces drying and spreading through weather, erosion, human/animal traffic, etc.
Removal likely won’t stop spread, but reduce it (afaik) with a long-lived parvo-like pathogen.
Of course bar snacks are a different matter entirely:
I recommend that you do not eat your sandwich out of the same bag that you use to collect your dog’s stools, and I note that siting on a stool in a restaurant is quite different from sitting on a stool in a park, so there are different health codes in place.
I have a completely different expectation of cleanliness when I’m paying good money to a place that’s serving me food than I do of a free public outdoor space that’s intended for walking and running on.
Well, there’s your opportunity. Since you seem to be the only one who gives a shit about it (pun intended – I slay me!), you should by all means devise and implement said study. You could probably get a grant from Duky University.
Yes, but would you recommend against me using a new, clean poo-bag to pack my sandwich and then -after consuming said sandwich- using the same bag to pick-up my hound’s poo?
Bu-u-t, people don’t take their deer and squirrels to the park specifically to dump in public rather than on their carpet or back yard. You basically are concentrating the poo activity from thousands of animals in one place - and that place is where your frisbee lands.
and that’s just for worms…
There’s this wonderful invention called soap…
Let’s look at it this way.
Scenario a) There’s a big, steamy pile of poop. You don’t notice it and step in it. Now you’ve squished it into a larger, flatter pile plus you have it on your shoe. Then you take another step (or drag your foot trying to clean your shoe) and you spread the poop into another area of the grass. Then someone else steps in the first pile and repeats the process into another formerly poopless space. This continues until multiple people have poop on their shoes and the original pile has been stamped into the ground.
Scenario b) The dog owner cleans up the original pile of poop. There’s a trace left on the ground. You step in it but pretty much get it all off your shoe with the next step.
Permit me to address your central concern, using the inestimable scientific resource How to Sh*t in the Woods, by Kathleen Meyer.
Meyer, an environmentalist, recommends a technique for dealing with human excrement when one cannot, for whatever reasons, bag or honeypot one’s leavings, called “frosting a rock.”
The idea behind “frosting” is that UV radiation from sunlight is a powerful killer of pathogens – especially fecal pathogens, which literally thrive “where the sun don’t shine.” An environmentally-conscious pooper, using a stick or flat rock, spreads the waste across an exposed rock, rather like frosting a cake. The thinner the better! Sunlight quickly penetrates the thin layer, killing the bad things with ultraviolet, and also heat and drying action.
Armed with this knowledge, I am confident that a thin smear of poop left behind after bagging gets similar sun exposure, quickly rendering its dangerous content nugatory.
Enjoy your public spaces without fear. And give those dogs you see a pat on the head!
People sit on benches in the park. Between their skanky ass and the bench there is one or two layers of porous cloth.
It may be preferable not to thing too hard about these things.
Dog poop stinks. If I step in it, it tracks into my house/car/workplace where I and everyone else can smell it all day. That’s sufficient. And before anybody gets onto cats and sandboxes, I keep my cats in so that only I get to enjoy their leavings, which I assume is similar to changing your own child’s diapers on your own kitchen table if you wish, but not on the restaurant table, thank you.
What!? That’s crazy talk, do know how many germs live on a dogs head?
Think and see what the OP is getting at. There must be some places where the dog park is really small and the number of dog owners is really large. They all bring their dog to the same park and there does end up being a lot of poop and poop residue. I think that’s why they have specialty dog parks, so people can take the kids somewhere that isn’t infested with dog poop.
This paper discusses the topic.
It is worth a read.
Our local scoop the poop info page:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Articles/clean_up_waste.cfm
http://www.cpha.ca/en/programs/history/achievements/05-he/diseases.aspx
Don’t the deer and squirrels usually take themselves to the park?
Squirrels especially do. They will eat just about any crumb left behind by people, and will congregate in the areas where people are.
Deer on the other hand have two purposes… to commit suicide by car, costing a great deal of money to fix, and to eat (and of course shit) all over the plants around your house. Especially vegetable gardens. They love to eat them.