“Wildlife” is a catch-all term for non-domesticated animals. So it includes a lot of creatures–from reptiles to bears to birds. While zoonotic illnesses can be transmitted by a variety of fecal sources, mammalian sources are especially risky since mammals tend to have similar gut flora to humans.
Also, wildlife poop tends to be more spread out in the landscape and comprised of material that can be broken down easily (no fillers!) before being washed into a stream. A subdivision of dog owners not picking up behind their pets is going to represent a concentrated source of feces–one full of parasites and pathogenic bacteria.
Mind you, I wouldn’t be thrilled about swimming in a waterbody alongside a flock of geese, since geese can carry some nasty diseases. But not all animal poop is the same.
They’ve just started to give new advice to dog owners in Epping Forest. It seems that a lot of people were bagging the poop and then leaving it on a tree branch with the intention to pick it up on the way back. Of course, a lot of them would then forget, or take a different route back to their car or home. The wildlife then tries to eat the poop and chokes on the plastic.
So the current advice is to try and make your dog poop off the path and then leave it there. If the dog poops on a path, give it a kick into the bushes. (the poop, not the dog)
I do remember, years ago, they said not to leave dog poo in wild areas as the carnivore diet led to poop that would upset the natural balance. Maybe dog food has changed in the past 30 years.
I heard that debate as well. It was directed at people going on country walks where they won’t find a bin. The Forestry Commission have even written a poem about it!
"If your dog should do a plop, take a while and make a stop, just find a stick and flick it wide into the undergrowth at the side.
“If your dog should do a do, you don’t want it on your shoe, find a stick, pick a spot, flick into the bushes so it can rot.”
I knew what you meant, for what it’s worth. I used to live on a road that was slightly on the other edge of rural: the several mobile homes and houses were dispersed among a little more than a mile rather than a half mile, enough that each house could have quite a hobby farm if they wanted to, and far enough that you couldn’t see your neighbor’s houses for the trees and hills, but was less than 2 miles from a general store and less than 3 miles from a large village.
I’ve had large dogs all my adult life - the past 35 years. I always pick up after my dogs near homes, wherever people might reasonably be expected to walk, or wherever grass is mown or landscape tended. The only times I’ll leave it might be in a prairie or forest preserve, if he goes well off the path. OK - maybe by doing so I’m irresponsibly poisoning our water supply and endangering wildlife. :rolleyes: I can live with that.
I can’t imagine why someone would pick up the mess and leave it. Using a plastic bag, what is the problem with putting it in your pocket? Or if you don’t want to carry it, tie it to the dog’s collar. Make him carry his own shit.
Our local sewer district had a big campaign last year or 2015 about picking up dog poop*. They had a jingle that reminded us that we don’t want it in our water supply.
I have a friend who is a higher-up at a different water management area (our sewer management comes from the north, Cleveland. Her jurisdiction is to the south, Akron) and asked her what the big deal was. Because we pay for the treatment of the water supply and stuff so it’s going to get cleaned one way or another.
She said it’s not a big deal in my yard probably because it’s quite a large yard and the poop will disintegrate and go back down directly into my yard. But it’s a bigger deal for people with smaller yards, and poop on the side of the road, because it gets washed into the storm sewers, more directly affecting the water. See monsto’s post.
Since this was at a party and my friend was drunk, she then went off on a different tangent about Ohio’s allowing of “biosolids” - human waste from septic tanks, portable toilets, etc - as fertilizer for food crops. There are rules and regulations about it but she said the reporting about the practice is sketchy and hard for her to get data, even from her position.
Anyway, that’s got nothing to do with the discussion about picking up poop other than it’s just another thing water management deals with. I found it interesting and disturbing.
*NB: I am a dog owner who picks up dog poop when we’re on walks, whether it’s in our neighborhood or in the woods on a path. If they manage to go off the path, I do try to flick it into the woods.
All the parks where I walk Leet the Wonder Dog[sup]TM[/sup] have signs saying it is the law to clean up after your dog. And I don’t want to cheese off the neighbors by leaving dog poop in their yards. There is an off-leash dog park where we go on weekends, and I try to do my bit to make the world a better place by cleaning up doo-doo that somebody else missed.
Constant practice has made me expert - I can recognize the Poop Expression on his little dog face, and I have the timing down to where he is in mid-squat and cannot interrupt the process, then I reach under his butt with a plastic-protected hand, catch the (generally impressive) results, and wrap it up without it even touching the grass. Then I stash it in my pocket until we pass a trash can.
It grosses my wife out that I carry the poop in my pocket, but it’s wrapped up. I am a veterinarian’s son - I’m used to dealing with things like that. And hands can be washed, after all.
I live in the suburbs - does dog poo scare off the wildlife in the country?
I’ve got a bag as has verious ‘dog’ things in it - water, dish, training treats, etc. There’s also a snap-top ‘tupperware’ type container for used poop bags. 100#+ dogs poop like predatory cows; I’m not leaving that behind for someone else to deal with.
When my country brother brings his dog to the city, he puts a turd-sized stick in a plastic bag and walks around with it and a “I’m so virtuous” smug smile while the pooch craps everywhere. My remonstrations go unheeded.
He did step in his own dog’s shit in our front yard and was furious. He limped over to the garden hose and turned it on. Neighbour kids had jammed the end of the hose with rocks, so the water spurted out in 3-4 jet streams, blasting the shit all over him. I still smile when I think about. Hell, I’m cracking up right now.
My brother-in-law was driving around his block on a beautiful summer day when wham! a dog turd sailed through the open window and hit him in the head. He spun around the block to look for the evil little kid, saw only a nice little old white-haired granny in her yard. He stopped and asked if she’d seen any kids around. Brother-in-law is the best, but he does look a little scary. Especially when hit with dog shit. She froze, wide-eyed, didn’t say a word, shook her head no. Then he saw the stick in her hand. Shook his head and drove off.
