Dear Dog Owner, Please explain…

The trash can is 95 steps from where the poop bag was deposited. I counted. 

Johnson’s Law of Dogs: There are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners.

I am genuinely curious. Why do dog walkers bag their puppy’s poop, but then leave the filled bags along the path or tied to a tree branch instead of placing it in a garbage can? 

This is such a common sight that there has to be some sort of reasonable answer.

Dog owners who make the effort to bag their canine’s do-do obviously have a conscience and understand their responsibility to keep our environment clean and safe*. They do, after all, begin the process of removing the waste.

But why go only half way? And might leaving poop in a plastic non-degradable or slowly degradable bag, be even worse than just leaving the leavings in nature?

The standard excuse made by bag droppers is that they intend to pick the bags up at the end of their hike but sometimes forget. Given the number of doggie baggies I see in any given week, owning a dog must exacerbate memory loss. Is it really that onerous to carry a small filled bag for the rest of the walk?

So my question remains - Why do dog walkers go just halfway in being good environmental stewards? And why might any of us make only half the needed effort to accomplish a worthwhile task?

*"Dog poop can contain E. coli, Giardia, worms, pharmaceuticals, as well as several billion fecal coliform bacteria. It can spread diseases, such as Parvovirus, and pollute soil and the water we drink and play in." (Leave no trace.)

Comments

[Annette]

I don’t know if it applies in this case, but we have seen (and do ourselves) dropped bags of dog poop on out-and-back trails that were left to pick up on the way back. It’s pretty common, and occasionally someone will have already picked ours up when we return.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Annette,

I hope that is the case with all dog walkers. (I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt in the post.) Whatever the reason, those bags don't do much for the scenery!

Thanks for the comment,

Doug