I am lucky enough to be able to walk my dogs  over open countryside. A lot of the paths are miles from roads. I am getting Sick and Tired of seeing hedges, fences and trees decked out with bags of dog poo, presumably put there by people who think they are doing the responsible thing clearing up after their dog.  Just who do they think is going to move these bags? There is no road access so the council won't be collecting them. Do they think the farmer is going to come along and dispose of it? Some bags look similar types so it looks like the same people are leaving it there day after day. Are they not getting the idea that no one is moving the bags?
I have even seen poo carefully picked up from fields that have had muck spread on them!
it will take a couple of weeks for unbagged poo to disintigrate if left where it falls. the stuff in bags is still there months or years later stewing in its own juices.
A local beauty spot has bins on the paths but there is a small area of woodland. People leave their poo in carrier bags hung on trees rather than carry it a few hundred yards to the nearest bin! the poor warden has to go round and collect these bags up. not a pleasant task for them, and it is not nice for other walkers to have to walk past smelly bags of poo when trying to have an afternoon out.
If you are going to pick up dog poo  then TAKE IT HOME WITH YOU OR PUT IT IN THE NEAREST BIN. DO NOT LEAVE IT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DISPOSE OF.
I am sure most people on here don't need to be told this but I just needed to have a bit of a moan as the good weather has caused lots more dog walkers and a corresponding increase in poo bags.

It makes me angry to and seems to be the thing to do at the moment.
Saying that i quite often put my poo bag on a gate and pick it up on my way home rather than carry it for the whole walk.
Think some people mean to do the same then forget, although i'm sure a lot of people just can't be bothered and like you said feel they've done their bit by picking it up.
don't know what can be done about it unless the council catches people doing it and fines them but thats not going to happen in a lot of places.  

Hi there,

This is something that myself and my partner have major issues with also, how stupid are people to think that this is the best thing to do! If their dog has fouled in the middle of the undergrowth, surely it would be better for them to leave it to rot into the soil than to pick it up and chuck it in a hedge, we see this so often at our local wood. At one countryside visitor spot we visited recently, I actually saw some cartoon style signs advising that if your dog fouls on the path, to get a stick and flick it into the undergrowth, which I think is a really good idea.
Obviously, like yourself, I am not encouraging people to leave their dogs dirt lying around, but use some common sense, either pick it up and take it home, or if you are adamant that you are not going to do that, move it out of the way of pedestrians, its so much more environmentally friendly that picking it up in a plastic bag and then chucking it into a hedge to stay there for years!

Good point well made dogmad1234.

Nicki x

I'm with you on this rant!!

We have been conducting a questionnaire with a view to creating an Action Plan for our village.  We have exactly this problem, there is one stretch of lane strewn with poo bags.  We also have a problem with dogs allowed to foul right outside peoples houses and poo not cleared up.

We've occasionally put a complaint in our village magazine and the problem goes away for a while BUT they soon start again

I'm going to suggest notices in the problem area and see whether we can have a poo bin.  I don't know what else to suggest...

If I knew who it was I've considered returning all the poo filled bags to their garden!! 

We have been conducting a questionnaire with a view to creating an Action Plan for our village.  We have exactly this problem, there is one stretch of lane strewn with poo bags.  We also have a problem with dogs allowed to foul right outside peoples houses and poo not cleared up.

We've occasionally put a complaint in our village magazine and the problem goes away for a while BUT they soon start again

I'm going to suggest notices in the problem area and see whether we can have a poo bin

Questionnaire?? Action Plan??

Surely the obvious solution is get a bin put up asap?  Isn't this beauracracy and red tape carried to the extreme and no doubt some councillor will be paid (or claim!) an exorbitant amount of money to make this decision?!!!!

I got the message years ago and always pick up - not in fields or woodlands (unless it happens to land in a pathway) but I get very frustrated at carrying it all the way home just because a local council don't seem to be bothered!

Some people just don't seem to realise that their plastic bags will sit there for years and years fading in the sun and looking disgusting.  

> Questionnaire?? Action Plan??

The village action plan is an initiative to ensure all the residents have a say in the future of the village as a whole - the dog waste question is only one of many related to the village but one of my favourite questions!  The answers and comments have made for fun reading and oddly enough, we've had some strong objections to horse manure too, and one man who insists the farmer should sweep all cow muck when moving his cows for milking :)

> Surely the obvious solution is get a bin put up asap?  Isn't this beauracracy and red tape carried to the extreme and no doubt some councillor will be paid (or claim!) an exorbitant amount of money to make this decision?!!!!

Apparently it's not quite that easy as the content of the bins is not collected by the normal bin men.  I've just started to research how/if we can get one and it's a shame I'm not paid an exorbitant amount of money as I've spent hours on this action plan one way or another... (Note to self: Do not put hand up next time they ask for volunteers !! )

> but I get very frustrated at carrying it all the way home just because a local council don't seem to be bothered!

The council doesn't have to 'be bothered' to put in bins, it's not thier dog(s) that are making the mess.
We choose to have a dog, the councils do not insist on it, so the council has no reason to need to put in dog poop bins, it's irresponsible owners that force action because they will not pick up thier dog poop.

Poop bins & signs do not make the irresponsible people pick up after thier dogs and do not solve the problem of poop being left around. We have 'poop-scoop area' signs warning of fines for dogs fouling and a poop bin in the area I walk  Buster, but there is dog-poop everywhere (I do not use the bin as I hope that if other poeple can see I easily manage to carry Mastiff-poop home, every other dog owner can do the same).
I think what needs to be done, is some enforcement of fines for dogs fouling, it may then make the lazy, irresponsible people think before they abandon thier dog-poop.

I'm with you on this rant! I will bag it then leave it to pick up on the way back to the house if I am in the playing fields across from my house, I use lilac nappy sacks so they stick out like a sore thumb!!  If I'm walking along the river I pick it up and carry it til I see the next bin.  There was a spate of people getting fined for not picking it up in our area about 6 months ago, this lead to it being bagged and dumped over the hedge or wherever. 

> I actually saw some cartoon style signs advising that if your dog fouls on the path, to get a stick and flick it into the undergrowth, which I think is a really good idea.
>

Stick and flick is definately a better alternative than people leaving bags of poo to slowly disintergrate and rot over the years but large amounts of poo left in the undergrowth is going to really satart to hum when the weather warms it up.

I cannot understand the stupidity of some people, why go to the effort of picking up the poo if you're just going to lob the back in the hedge??!!

But not as good as I saw the other day. We were on the park and a young woman came on with her mothers two dogs. One went to the toilet. She picked it up with a big sod of dried grass, walked on about 20 ft and then proceeded to drop it back down on the grass hoping that we didn't see. She then walked on with her hands in her pockets. I intend to accost the mother when I see her and if I get a bad reply then I will be reporting the daughter to the council. Lets see how they like the £70 plus fine dropping through their letterbox.

Not sure about the rest of the UK but under the Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act, 2003 it is an offence not to pick up immediately after your dog and dispose of into a proper receptacle. This means that throwing it behind a hedge, hanging it on a tree, putting it down a drain etc. is still an offence.
Our Council has issued hundreds of fixed penalties and the excuses are just amazing....'There's no bin'...'I was going to get it on the way back'... 'It's not my dog'...'He went already and doesn't normally go twice in one morning'... and the best from a guy who was chucking 2 bags of cr*p into the river every day for goodness knows how long...'I thought the fish would eat it' What!?! including the plastic bags???
There is no excuse not to pick up, people who don't are just lazy and selfish and give responsible dog owners a bad name.

I use to see it all the time where i use to live, a friend of my parents use to do it all the time, but after moving from england to south wales i dont see it much in my area. When im out mith my nabours two i take a medium sized zip bag with stuff in it like dog treats, poop bags, a toy and a bandge (just in case of an accident) and if they go and we are not next to a bin i bag it and put it in the zip bag. That way i dont have to carry it around on show. I make sure i lurnt where the bins were and we dont stop to go to the toilet untill we are near the bins, that way i have to carry it less. It took a while but the dogs now know where they can go and where they cant.

I can see why some people dont want to do it as it isnt a nice job to pick it up or carry it about but its unfair on others not to.

Totally agree, there is a lovely walk with a cycle path near me next to a river, but it is ruined by the fact that the hedgerow is adorned with plastic bags of mess. I do wander what must go through peoples minds when they do this, surely it ruins their own enjoyment of the walk to have to pass all the stinking little bags everyday and flap away the flies?

I agree with you why go to the trouble of picking it up to just chuck it in a bush!
i opened the truch a few days ago to a horrible smell OH had picked up the bags bought them home but forgot to put said bags in the loo. Over night and cooked really rank and whiffy!!!

> .. and the best from a guy who was chucking 2 bags of cr*p into the river every day for goodness knows how long...'I thought the fish would eat it' What!?! including the plastic bags???

another good reason not to eat fish ;)

When my girls go when we are out and i have the car,i just hang the bags on the tow bar and get rid of it when i get home.

But where ever you go now there is poo bags thrown in the hedge....its better in my oppinion to leave it than do that and have it sat in the bag for years in the hedge.

I totally agree, I pick it up in poo bags, put the bag in my jacket pocket until I come to the bin or tie it to my jeans belt loop if I've not wearing a jacket. 

Not pleasant for some I suppose, they are scented bags :-P and I've no adversity to poo (being a farmers daughter), I just like to have my hands free when walking the dogs.