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Guest Contributor Wants Mt. Washington Pet Owners to be More Responsible
by Mountain Girl ~ March 6th, 2008. Filed under: Community, Litter.
From: brk_05
Re: Dog Doo
I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention a growing problem that I have noticed on the streets of Mount Washington. The problem is poop! There seems to be an increasing number of pet owners who do not take responsibility for their pets’ actions. One of the major responsibilities of owning a pet in the city is picking up after your pet.
My girlfriend and I recently adopted a dog from the humane society and we enjoy taking him for walks on Grandview and the surrounding areas. We would never think of going for a walk without bringing a bag to clean up after him. It is extremely rude of people to leave the droppings on the sidewalk for other pedestrians to dodge on their walks. A pet owner should never leave the mess and expect someone else to clean it up.
I have a couple ideas of how we can all work to curb this issue. One would be confronting the offenders. Of course this is difficult because rarely do we catch these people in the act of walking away from their pet’s mess. We just stumble upon it later. If you see someone starting to walk away, ask them, “Did you forget a bag?” or “Were you planning on cleaning that up?” Hopefully the offenders will become embarrassed enough to start bringing a bag with them and cleaning up after their pets. Another possible solution would be some signs reminding pet owners to keep our sidewalks clean. I know there are some issues with this suggestion such as cost and placement of signs, but it’s an idea.
My girlfriend and I had our dog out for a walk this past Monday (March 3rd) to enjoy the warm weather and definitely noticed an increase in poop. The problem is only going to get worse as warmer months approach. Let’s try and confront the issue before it gets worse.
I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on the subject and suggestions.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
MG,
Oh my… I took a long walk today and saw way too much doggie poop… It is quite sad actually when I can’t even walk and look at the city but instead I have to watch every step to avoid land mines… Here’s an idea (check out this site http://www.poopertrooper.com/?gclid=CNKdgoyn-ZECFQEfFQodRxEevw). I wonder if we can get some funding from the city for these???
March 6th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
That’s a great link/idea, CTRN! All we would really need is a some of the bag dispensers attached to either trash cans or the railing that is already on Grandview. I know there are other streets to worry about but at least Grandview would be the place to start. This is were most of our guests/tourists are headed when they visit Mount Washington.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Geez, Come Together Right Now, I never even thought about the implications of having to look down to walk while trying to appreciate the view. Good point!
I believe (and someone more knowledgeable about Mt. Washington’s parks can chime in here) that there is a contraption like this near Grandview Park. Maybe take this suggestion to the CDC and see what they think about raising funds for it.
MG
March 6th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
brk_05,
Thanks so much for writing about this important issue. I have two large dogs and adamently clean up after them. It infuriates me when I find dog droppings in my front yard!!!! UGHHH!
There is a doggie bag distributor at Bigbee Field. When I first moved to Mt. W, about 8 years ago you could barely walk in that area because of all of the dog waste. But a concerned neighbor worked with the City to get the bag distributor installed and she even takes on the responsibility of replenishing the bags that are provided by the City. Almost all dog waste is gone. A great improvement!
I talked to the City awhile ago about getting another bag distributor at Grandview Park and they said that they didn’t have the funds to provide one for us. But it certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask if they could provide one for Grandview Avenue.
A bit of humor…
I saw a man one morning that didn’t pick up after his dog. I yelled at him out of my car window to clean it up and his response was….. “it ain’t my dog”. Hmmm…. I’ll never understand the logic of that one!
Thanks again!
Kim
March 7th, 2008 at 8:43 am
As a responsible dog owner who would never think about walking away from my dog’s droppings, it makes me so mad that these people ruin the reputation of pet owners! These are the people that make it hard to get great things like off-leash areas in our neighborhood because neighbors think that all dog owners are like this.
Being that I don’t live near Grandview, I don’t walk up there much so I’m not aware of how the “poop situation” normally is up there, but I do know that sometimes the snow has something to do with it (you should see our yard now that the snow melted - GROSS!). I’m not making excuses for these people because this behavior is totally unacceptable, I’m just hoping that maybe we’ll see at least a little bit (fingers crossed) of a change now that the snow is gone…
March 11th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
My husband and I were walking on Grandview a month or so ago when we saw a man walking his dog and failing to clean up the poop. We sped up our pace to catch up with him to say something. As soon as we were within earshot I started repeatedly confronting him with “are you going to clean up after your dog? we all have to live here.” Even though we were only a few feet behind him, he pretended not to hear me. Once we caught up to him, he lifted his cell phone up to his ear and pretended to be on the phone…! His only response was “I didn’t bring anything.” So I asked if he would get a bag and go back to pick it up. Again, he pretended not to hear me. At least I feel satisfied that he knows people are watching and that it is not okay to just leave the doggie doo on the sidewalk.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Good for you, Polly. I think this is exactly how we have to confront the people who do this. Obviously the man knew he was in the wrong by the way he tried to ignore you and spare himself the embarassment.