The Aveton Gifford community Facebook site has had another message to ask dog owners to be on the look out for clearing up after their dogs – this is the third since the start of the summer holiday period. This one comes from a father who has had a lot of near-misses in the last few days, and he has pointed out that there are still lots of un-cleared-up dog poos, and especially in the open communal parts of the village where everybody especially little children should be able to walk about safely. In his case there were a lot of poo hazards around the park just the day before the car show that his small child luckily managed to avoid, and the next day another just beside his car door.
We do appear to have a problem if we have a situation where dog owners must  know that there will be 1000+ visitors to the green in the next couple of days, but still don’t bother to pick up their dog’s poo…..
We know that the huge majority of our dog owners are really responsible, and many even pick up other dogs waste as well as their own. Apart from continually asking people politely to clean up afterwards, telling them we provide the bags and the bins, how do we reach the minority that are making it so unpleasant for the rest of us? Any ideas?
Every time I walk across the playing field, I encounter dog poo. I often pick it up using the bags provided despite not being a dog owner.
I love dogs but maybe the way to get dog owners to take this seriously is to consider banning dogs from the playing field completely unless they clean up their act?
I know that won’t be popular, and it would be sad, but I am sick of treading in and worrying that children will fall in dog poo whilst playing on the playing field. (the clue is in the name!)