Picking up your dog’s crap isn’t strange at all. I used to be a janitor for a condo building and dogs used to crap all the time outside in the condo property and I would have to clean it up. It was always encouraging when people cleaned up after their dogs.
In a rural setting I wouldn’t expect to see anyone pick up dog poo. I’d be more concerned about how the bag will break down to be honest.
The op isn’t living in a condo, he’s living out in the country.
Yea, I know that. I just wanted to say my experience with dog crap.
I know some people are loose with their use of words. But ‘pretentious’, seriously? I can go along with saying it’s not really necessary and a city/suburban habit. That’s how I kind of felt when my dog crapped on a walk from the motel along a rural road in WI recently. But I always have the bags, always pick it up at home, so I did. But that meant I was “attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.” It’s cultured to pick up dog crap, who knew? 
Its not really all that rural.
I live half a mile back from a dead end street. On that street are several mobile homes and houses, my house is a mobile home with rooms added on. There are dirt roads heading off from the paved road to other houses or mobile homes.
Its rural enough to have livestock, but not enough to be miles from your neighbors.
I would like to know where that guy live b/c I am finding it hard to pick up after my dog . It’s the law in my city. My poor dog like to check out his shit and when he turns around it’s gone , he is thinking I knew I just took a shit so where did it go !
I had an older man tell he thought it was strange people picking up their dogs shits and carrying a bag of shit home.
Out in the country with live stock and other assorted wild animals a daily dog turd isn’t contributing much either way to the environment.
I read an article here in the U.K. urging people to use the stick and flick method as opposed to using and leaving the unsightly bags everywhere. I don’t know how well that would work on city streets, but seems like a good idea in the parks and forests.
We have a 3-acre mostly fenced yard and a pug who will go into the wooded areas of the yard to deposit her business. On the rare occasions when I harness her up for a walk around the neighborhood, she always seems to have to poop at some point, but there are enough untended wooded areas close to the road that I don’t have to worry about cleaning up after her.
Now, when we take her to visit my husband’s family in their retirement community, you can sure bet I’m going to be carrying bags with me…
“Daily dog turds” can make a huge difference if all pet owners in an area are being sloppy.
Dog turds also confer a higher pathogen risk to humans than wildlife poop.
Environmental protection agencies will often use something called “microbial source tracking” to pinpoint where fecal contamination is coming from in a particular watershed. If they detect signatures associated with human waste, domesticated livestock or pets, they are obligated to develop a clean-up plan. Doesn’t matter if wildlife contributes the bulk of the contamination. Developing and implementing that plan can cost a state millions of dollars.
From the sound of Brodi’s neighborhood, I’m guessing that there is probably elevated bacteria in his local swimming hole. Livestock and leaking septics are probably the biggest sources, but dog feces would certainly be on the list if picking up behind his dog is considered strange behavior.
This is one of my least favourite things that local dog owners do. Leaving your dog’s shit beside the sidewalk to decompose where everyone can enjoy it is one (asshole) thing; putting it in a plastic bag and leaving it there so it will never decompose, but we can all continue looking at it day after day is even worse.
I think what happens is, they don’t want to carry the poop on the whole walk, so they place it conspicuously at the side of the road, or whatever, and then forget it on the return trip.
Rural or not, here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed we are strongly encouraged, and in most jurisdictions legally required, to pick it up dog poop even in our own back yards. Everything flows into the bay, the largest freshwater estuary on Earth. The bay is severely impacted by human activity and the neighboring states have a multi-party agreement to help it recover.
I’ve posted about this before and immediately been challenged. Usually someone trots out the old “don’t wild animals poop outside?” argument. Take it up with the scientists, folks. I feel no need to spend a lot of time citing sources for “don’t leave shit lying around” just to appease people who argue they should be able to leave shit lying around.
If someone asks for cites, don’t worry. I’ve got reams of them to hand out. I can literally talk about this shit (haha) all day, since it’s my bread and butter.
Even if a person doesn’t believe that dog turds cause water quality problems, excessive fecal bacteria manifests in high costs and inconvenience on the taxpayer. Most of the funding for restoring water quality in my state (besides Chesapeake Bay stuff, holla!) is devoted to bacteria load reduction. It turns out that people really like swimming and eating oysters without getting sick, and people actually get mad when the state doesn’t do anything about these problems. And even if people don’t believe the science and are willing to incur the risks, few people want to drive all the way to the beach to find out that it’s closed due to high bacteria counts.
We’re all in this shit together. Even the people who live out in the boonies.
I’d like a little more information about why dog poop is more problematic than wildlife poop – not because I’m skeptical, mind you, but I just don’t follow how that happens and want to learn.
It’s the law where I live. If I catch someone leaving a gift on my front lawn I’ll give them a minute to pick it up otherwise they’re going to wear it. The worst invention ever was the creation of those extendable leashes. I’ve seen people sneakily act as if they are curbing their pet but every so often they unlatch the leash and the dog goes gallivanting on someone’s lawn.
And the funny thing is I’ve never walked into my house saying “I smell something, oh man, I stepped in wild animal shit”. Dog shit? Too many times.
I expect that the population density of pet dogs is a lot higher than the wildlife density would be. And it’s certainly higher than the wildlife density is in places where humans have already settled. Maybe wilderness areas with a lot of wildlife also have bacteria problems, and maybe 10% of the deer die of resulting bacterial diseases, and we just don’t care because we’re not deer.
Not at all wierd, IMO - And there’s a large industry of fecal cleanup supplies to back me on that. 