An Impassioned Plea to Dog Owners

Can I make an impassioned plea through the Wendover News to all dog owners/walkers to PLEASE PLEASE pick up after your dog.

I live in Weston Turville where the habit of not picking up after one’s dog appears to have become a normality and commonplace. The stuff is absolutely everywhere. Any spare green area or verge is blighted and I and my children are constantly treading in it. The lovely green area at the end of Millstream where we sometimes have a little play seems to have become a dog toilet despite the fact that just a few metres away at the end of the path that connects Millstream to the road below Brookside a dog poo bin is there for all to use. The footpath around the fields behind is covered in dollops. We like to go out for walks and have a play as we only have a small garden but the mess is constantly cutting our fun short.

We dare not stray a centimetre off a pavement onto any green patch as without a doubt before long the familiar stench and sticky brown yuck is again a companion to our shoes and we have to traipse home for mum to scrub and disinfect shoes. Fed up I am of it.

Even the path running adjacent to the park from the car park to the school is very often afflicted and the playing fields behind the village hall are just disgusting. The £1,000 fine seems to be no deterrent and everyone knows the health risks. Small children just don’t understand not to touch. Even when wiped their fingers are likely to find their way to their mouths before they can be washed properly.

Straying off the path at the end of School Lane where it meets Church Lane to have a jump and a skip on the grass or to lift the children up to have a look at the pictures on the sign explaining the history of the buildings in the village used to be a favourite bit of fun, but so often were we treading in the inevitable that we have to avoid.

Every dog owner I know swears that they pick it up but it seems to me that very few people do so.

To continue my rant – when recently playing in Ashbrook Park in Wendover we ventured out of the fenced-in play park area to shoot a few goals in the basketball hoop. “Careful – watch out for dog poo,” I call. Too late! My son treads in a fresh pile – right next to the dog poo bin! Not just on his shoes but this time a good one that squirts right up his leg. Play cut short again!

The list goes on, and yes, perhaps there are bigger things to worry about in the world and perhaps I should get a life, but it is such a small and simple thing I am asking that would make such a huge difference to everyone. Having children comes with a responsibility and so does dog ownership.

I am asking, requesting, begging, imploring: – please, please pick it up.