For dog fouling campaigners, this years National Poop Scoop Week will be the culmination of 12 months hard work where we finally get the national press coverage and the public acknowledgement we deserve.
Put the dates in your diary (22nd - 28th June 2009) and start thinking how you can get involved and raise awareness. The Dogs Trust have a few suggestions to help promote the week, but I don't think they go far enough.
We need to think "out of the box" and look at more radical methods to raise awareness in the problems caused by dog fouling.
With that in mind, I was particularly pleased when I was Emailed by John Wood - Sherwood Forest Community Ranger about his idea.
John states, "I was getting fed up with standing in dog poo while out walking in the woods so I decided to find a way of warning others of the dangers ahead. That's when I came up with the idea to spray paint every dog faeces in the park with permanent fluorescent pink paint. Now I have an army of volunteers that go out every day to search for dog poo and spray it pink. I have seen a drop in the number of complaints from visitors standing in poo and made the woods a more colourful place."
Councillor Eddie Smith, Portfolio Holder for the Environment at Mansfield District Council commented,
"We are looking to expand on John's idea and have issued pink spray canisters to all council employees. We envisage our staff using the paint in a variety of different areas - traffic wardens will spray drivers windscreens to identify those illegally parked & road cleaners will spray chewing gum stuck on the pavements. We are currently in discussions with the police to allow them to spray those they have arrested to easily identify criminals to the community. The possibilities are endless."
"We are looking to expand on John's idea and have issued pink spray canisters to all council employees. We envisage our staff using the paint in a variety of different areas - traffic wardens will spray drivers windscreens to identify those illegally parked & road cleaners will spray chewing gum stuck on the pavements. We are currently in discussions with the police to allow them to spray those they have arrested to easily identify criminals to the community. The possibilities are endless."
Don't let National Poop Scoop Week 2009 go unnoticed - grab your pink spray and take a stand.
4 comments :
Well done that person for “highlighting” the issue. I would have gone further and sprayed the irresponsible owners pink too!
As an expert on dog poo I can tell you it takes approx 6 weeks for dog poo to recycle naturally. If you put it in a plastic bag, 12 months + to breakdown so why do we bag it ? It's not environmentally friendly. Dog owners need areas
where they can take there dogs to do what comes naturally.
Thank you.
PS. WHAT'S ENVIRONMENTAL ABOUT PAINT ?
Set up a vigilante group and shove it through the owner’s letter box - it worked in my village.
Of all this, I rather like Lucy's idea. I would actually vary it and say that it isn't necessary to post it through the owner's letter box. Make it random and really drive the point home!
I sealed my letter box up along time ago!
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