The female, who asked not to be called, informed the Herald: “The offenders drop dog poo bags in the seamless gutter, in front of individuals’s houses and gardens. They toss them on top of garage blocks and even drop them over the wall of the Remembrance Garden – I got 3 from the exact same area.
“It’s purely lazy, selfish, disappointing, disgusting and unacceptable behaviour.”
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There are now an approximated 10 million dogs in the UK (up 2 million in the last years) and each can produce, usually, 340g of waste a day – that’s more than 3,000 tonnes in all.
And it would appear that Stratford is definitely getting its share.
In the in 2015 Stratford District Council said it had actually gotten 93 dog fouling grievances from the general public, and identify it is a growing issue.
A representative said: “There does seem to be an increase in dog fouling and perhaps this coincides with the increase of dog ownership during Covid. Now the public are slowly migrating back to the workplace or working in a hybrid fashion, more early-morning or late-night dog walking is taking place.
“Either way, during the short hours of daylight in the winter months dog owners feel confident using the cloak of darkness to conceal themselves in not collecting their dog’s excrement.”
There are a couple of good Samaritans that are taking matters into their own hands.
The Old Town citizen said that she understood of others in the location who have actually taken it upon themselves to patrol the streets getting dog poo. This consists of a gentleman who has actually consistently gone on poop patrol for the previous 3 years considering that he retired. It’s an undesirable job that needs to be done thoroughly – as dog excrement can bring a range of illness and infections, consisting of, the majority of frequently, salmonella.
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Another group doing its finest to fight the poodemic is Stratford Rubbish Friends.
One of the members, Claudine Pearson, said: “We warn volunteers to stay away from dog poo as we do with anything that might be harmful and we always put health and safety first. We advise volunteers to report anything like dog mess and we can then pass that report on.”
She included: “One solution to helping to pay for the costs of cleaning up is to charge dog owners.”
The Old Town resident believed the council might do more to take on the issue.
She said: “I think that if there were more visible signs and more dog poo bins and more bins generally this would help and maybe make dog owners thing twice.”
Encouraging the general public to report occurrences of dog fouling, the council representative reacted: “We continue to do whatever possible to implement dog fouling grievances, nevertheless the general public remain in the very best position to collect proof of this nature on our behalf.
“Following reports of dog fouling, our dog warden speaks with complainants and asks them to gather as much intelligence/information as possible so we can target our resources to try to apprehend the irresponsible dog owners.
“We undertake early morning in dog patrols, proactive visits at different times of the day, stencil the pavement and erect no dog fouling signs.”
Stratford is not the only location in the district having problem with the poodemic.
Wendy Andrews, chair of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council (JPC), said: “We are experiencing more than typical dog poo being left abandoned by their owners along our High Street and pathways. Henley High Street is lovely and brings in lots of visitors, the last thing we desire is for them to have an enduring memory of poo on their shoes.
“As discussed at Monday night’s JPC meeting, there is a need to educate the dog owners who do not see this as a problem. The diseases that dog poo carries includes E.Coli, salmonella and parasites that can cause blindness and can be deadly to children.”
Under the Public Spaces Protection (Dog Fouling) Order of 2020, the council’s dog warden has the power to release a £100 repaired charge notification to anybody not getting after their dog.
The variety of fines provided to date, nevertheless, stands at no.
The council representative blamed this on the difficult logistics: “Given the size of the district it would be close to impossible for the dog warden to witness dog fouling without the input and cooperation from the public.”
Report a dog fouling issue online at www.stratford.gov.uk/environment/dog-fouling.cfm
