UKC

Cardiff council have put forward a proposal (only consultation stage) to ban all dogs from being walked on marked sports pitches, to prevent dog fouling on them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45758720

This hasn't gone down well with dog owners and the RSPCA have commented. Personally I see it as a step in the right direction, perhaps eventually nationwide?

Any thoughts on this and are similar bans in place anywhere else in the country?

There's been a ban on fouling on football pitches for a long time but it still happens.

When I was younger, general consensus was it was only fair to get a dog if someone was available to keep it company and there was plenty of land around for walking and/or an outside job.

For some reason this seems to have changed into dogs being a must have accessory for the average family, leading to many dogs left at home all day (with an occasional visit from a dog walker in some cases)

The RSPCA should be concerned with this, not the reclaiming of sports pitches covered in shit

Not sure why it even needs a consultation, it's a sports field, end of. Should be banned nationally. 

My understanding is that the Cardiff ban / restriction proposal is a bit more comprehensive than just the headline sports pitch story. On the face of it, i don't have a problem with this, but it might be worth finding the actual consultation document (I did see it via a friend in Cardiff on FB,  but I can't remember the other details from it, other than it seemed a bit broad brush)

We have neither at the moment and it causes a lot of friction, football clubs want an all out ban or fences, while most of the dog walkers are responsible. Most tend to be older and it's their main socialising. Problem is it only takes a few..... biggest problem is pro-dog walkers who turn up with 8 or more dogs, no way they can keep an eye on all of them.

The only problem is that it is the UK and they are 'pets'. Which removes many people's ability to see reason. People are keeping animals, in housing in cities that is completely unsuitable to house them. They are totally reliant on other peoples property for their whatever to $hit on. It's some how become a right etc..

The RSPCA should be more troubled by their habit of bringing malicious private prosecutions than about a plan to ensure dogs don’t poo where people play and graze themselves.

Many countries in mainland Europe are a lot worse for dog shit than the UK.

I don't think it should be just about kids. It is a sports field, even adults don't want to scraping crap off footwear and having to put stinking stuff in car boots etc.. it's just common decency to have you pet crap somewhere appropriate; regardless of what effort you intend to go to scooping up.

I don't think it would do the owners or their pets health any harm to walk further to some where more suitable. 

And some are better. Two wrongs don't make a right. It's pretty disgusting to say the least. 

I agree - I edited my post as you were replying!

Preaching to the choir.  

Our new house has a public footpath cross it’s land.  I busted a gut reigning in the hogweed (common but infected with the bacteria causing extreme photosensitivity as my scars attest), pulling out brambles and nettles, digging and fitting 50 meters of drains etc.

Reward?  An average of 5 big dog turds a week.  Then I get other village dog walkers complaining to me about dog poos on their walkxxx

Last week’s chocolate Mr Whippy took the biscuit - it was a meter from the dog poo bin and bag dispenser.

I'd say the problem isn't about dogs on sports pitches, but people not clearing up after themselves or dependents anywhere. Dog poo on paths, rubbish on sports pitches etc. What we need is a bigger push towards people taking pride in and care of their surroundings. 

My friend is trying to find an accessible route to get to a part of town on her mobility scooter, and the most logical path is covered in dog poo. Neither her nor I would say people shouldn't walk their dogs there, but we would both agree that it's disgusting and people need to clear up. However, a discarded kebab which attracts rats is also disgusting and unhygenic! 

I don't know how we go about changing attitudes, but just banning dogs from football pitches doesn't solve it, it just moves the poo elsewhere. We need to change attitudes to clearing up 

The (theoretically) dog free play park I took my daughter to yesterday had some shiny new dogs eggs next to one of the climbing frames, which leads me to believe that the kind of owners who are a problem would ignore the ban anyway.

I propose enforcing bans with snipers and having the owners put down.

Obviously.

The hate for dogs, dog owners and concern about dog shit does always surprise me on this forum.

I am from a farming family. We've a fair few footpaths across various pieces of land. Personally I don't really care about dog shit as long as the dog has been fed well (raw meat + bone/veggies) and is vaccinated and wormed. Barely smells and within a day it goes hard and white and disintegrates. Yes, I think it's pretty good manners to flick it out of the way if it's likely to be walked in or mowed. But personally I'd rather you didn't put it in plastic and dump it in landfill or put it in plastic and leave it hanging on a fence for me to dump in landfill.

What I do object to is people feeding their dogs on dried biscuits with cereals and rice that just ferment as they cannot be digested, then leaving gigantic soft smelly poo directly in the middle of the footpath. If you really must feed your dog junk then at least move the stinking, steaming, radioactive great dump thoroughly out of the way. Feeding a dog well is not cheap and not convenient (unlike a bag of dried food). The advent of cheap easy dog foods has created shit that can make even a hardened stomach gag.

I live in the country however. I assume in towns there is no option but to bag it up.

So you do understand really. I think you're right that context is everything but I don't think your message that leaving dog turds lying around can sometimes be acceptable in the countryside should be shouted too loudly. Yes, if you're in a genuinely quiet area and the dog has chosen a spot well away from the path and from anywhere that people are likely to go then not putting it into landfill might be more environmentally friendly. Even in the countryside, though, most dog walkers will be at major honeypot destinations near convenient car parks and family friendly paths. If that vast majority gets the message that dog turds are acceptable in the countryside, venues like Dovedale will be horrible.

I'm also out in the country, so like you this proposal and the problems barely effect me. But if I did live in Cardiff and played sport or had kids that did I would be pretty fed up with dog poo.

A quick search shows that Rhondda issued £22k in fines in 10 months (dog fouling) and an adult rugby player had a leg amputated after dog mess got into a cut on the playing field - so it must be a big problem down there.

Of course, it will be the minority that are irresponsible (a large minority in some areas?) owners, but then again, if the majority of responsible dog owners object to the proposal and want to continue walking dogs on the fields - they could always be proactive and clear up other dogs mess on a daily basis.

Isn't that why there's all this talk of Brexshit?

You see, I totally agree that badly fed dogs would leave popular spots utterly minging. But rather than bury it in plastic, I think a ban on cereal/rice based foods would be far better for the environment. It puts the price of dog food up by a factor of about ten but the dog shit issue would largely disappear. As I said, raw fed dog shit is small, un obnoxious, goes hard, dry, white and disintegrates in a day or two, basically identical to fox shit. Just kick it in the hedge and forget about it.

The problem comes with these gigantic mr whippy soft stinking radioactive shits that last a month courtesy of Bakers, Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved etc etc.

Comparison for example: https://tinyurl.com/y9dlur3k

Re sports pitches, agree with what's been said above. No dogs seems reasonable.

"Speaking as a dog owner", (just proved my absolute authority there ), dogs should be banned from all sports pitches and designated play areas.

People who don't pick up their own dog's shit, or equally as bad hang it in trees, should be forced to eat it.

Can we make the same fuss about cat poo, please? I have never understood why it's ok for a cat to poo in my garden! It smells even worse than dog poo and must be at least as toxic!

The big difference is that cats bury theirs.

I think the real difference is that it is unusual for a cat owner to be standing behind the animal and pretending they can't see it as it lays its deposits in the kiddies sand pit.

In reply to fred99:

Not always unfortunately.

Not in my garden they don't! Nor would I want them to, I don't want my garden dug up!

No they don't!

But I guess that's kind if my point, why do we agree to cats wandering and pooing where they want when we don't with dogs. If a dog wanders with no owner, it's a stray and the relevant authorities deal with it. Why can't I report a cat out on it's own and get it removed from the streets?

I have had to clean cat poo off carpets due to it being stood on in the garden and trailed through my house. Surely that is as unhygenic as dog poo on a football pitch?

So what?

I agree to a certain extent but it wouldn't work everywhere as a lot of them are historically shared spaces. Some of ours only get used for games once every 2 weeks. A big area is marked out for pitches as it's cheaper to rotate games around a big area than it is to maintain a small number of intensively used pitches.

Responsible dog owners - I am one - bag dog poo and put bags in appropriate rubbish bins. They are just as annoyed at dog owners who leave dog poo lying around. It is an unpleasant job to scrape dog poo from your shoe whether or not you are a dog owner.

In return for being allowed to walk my dog I pick up and bin rubbish. Football pitches where I live are covered with empty plastic bottles. Not as unpleasant as dog poo but not very nice. I am not the only dog owner who does this.

Somebody mentioned cat poo. My garden is plagued with cats coming in and pooing. - And not burying the poo.

And not just in town parks etc, but also in the countryside, particularly on footpaths, and in fields where cattle graze too. IIRC there is a worm which can live in dog shit which can cause pregnant cows to prematurely abort if they graze grass which as been contaminated. All dog owners should act responsibly and always pick it up. 

Edit

Sorry I don't mean ban dogs from the countryside, just urge owners to pick up their dog's shit, regardless of where it does it.

I think we have made the same fuss about cat poo on here many times but I feel your pain!

As someone who played rugby for twenty odd years I have lost count of the number of times I have returned to the changing rooms only to get that familiar whiff of dog shit smeared up legs or on the back of my shirt. Pretty much every park I played on had signs and threats of fines for dog fouling but a sizeable minority of people just ignore them. New legislation will not make a difference as any existing local laws are not enforced anyway.

Oh but people do pick it up, and then leave it hanging in a shrub or tree. For some reason once a few bags have been left dangling at one spot it become a dogs egg magnet.

The thing is, there are responsible dog owners and there are the rest. Unfortunately this goes for most of life, majority of us can walk, run, cycle, climb in the countryside without leaving litter, gates open, breaking fences etc. etc. But some can't. Some of us pick up litter that is dropped, put it in a bin and swear about the idiot that chucked it. Council will also pick up litter in towns (which we pay for in taxes).

Unfortunately dog poo is unsociable to tread in and a potential health hazard + nobody seems keen to clear up other peoples dog poo.

A 20 acre field near us has been managed as a hay meadow for at least several centuries.  No pesticides ever, and a wide range of meadow flowers.  It’s now at the point nobody will cut the hay - even for free - due to the sheer quantity of dog mess in it, as it’s to dangerous to use it for cow feed.

I think it's a good idea. 

Agreed. Dog owners need to be shamed if they don't pick up their dog's shit. If I see a dog owner continue to walk on after their dog has shat, I challenge them and politely ask them to pick it up. Most do look sheepish, and a lot come out with the lame excuse "Oh! I didn't see it!" and then proceed to pick it up. The more people who shame them the more likely they are to deal with it. 

New legislation might make a difference. At the moment to give a fine for dog fouling the dog and owner would have to caught in the act of pooing and not clearing it up (not the owner pooing!). Meaning a warden has to sit about watching I imagine.

But new legislation would mean if they are even seen on the pitch, they could be fined, which must be easier to catch people and discourage them? Presuming there are wardens somewhere.

It would be a good thing, however since a large percentage of dog owners don't seem to be able to read, or understand signs, it would need to be enforced stringently by the council otherwise it will make little difference. 

I have challenged quite a few people and lets be honest it is always a certain 'type' of person who basically tells you to piss off. During one pre match warm up I saw a man let his dog shit right on the try line in the corner. Given that I was playing wing that day there would be a good chance of me having to dive onto said turd. I jogged over and politely asked the man to clean up after his dog as a game was about to start in a few minutes at which point he just told me to f*ck off. Usually I shy away form confrontation but while I was trying to think of a reaction the opposition prop who had followed me over just grabbed the scrawny eejit and frog marched up to the offending dogs egg and made him pick it up with his hands and dump it in the nearby bin while his dog was yapping away thinking it was a great game.

Yeah, the people who I have challenged over this are the most obnoxious people I can ever remember meeting.

As to what the situation is like elsewhere, within Rossendale it's an offence to take a dog onto the following:

• Children's Play Areas
• Sports Facilities
• Sports Pitches
• Multi Use Games Areas
• Bowling Greens
• Tennis Courts
• Skate Parks
• Bike Tracks

I was surprised as I thought this type of ban was common place, even if not strictly enforced.

There is a simple solution to this. As all dogs now have to be chipped there should be a dna database too. When a abandoned dog egg is found it can be tested against the database and once the home location is found armed police should be dispatched. Not for the dog though, the owners should be shot and the dog rehomed with responsible people. 

That's a shame, it pongs to strim through dog poo, too, I've cycled home with it spread finely over my clothes after strimming before - it's not so nice. If a local group could be convinced it would be environmentally helpful, that could be a plan?

I don't think it is an unreasonable move. Ideally there would be enough 'wardens' to catch the people who leave their dog's poo and have heavy fines imposed, but unfortunately that is unlikely so banning dog walking on the pitches is probably the next best thing.

Again unfortunately it is the decent dog owners who are restricted by the actions of those who can't be bothered to clean up after their dog.

I don't suppose I will ever get an answer but I'd like to know why some folks hang the bag of poo on a bush. They have bought the poo bags (and possibly the little dispenser thing), done the potentially messy part in picking up the poo, tie the bag, but then hang the bag on a bush. Why?

Dave

Makes a change from padlocks on bridges

I fear it's just another symptom of entitlement, and lack of any enforcement. Covers a wide range of antisocial behaviour, from littering to theft/burglary.

Responding to a criticism of the UK by saying that others are worse seems pretty irrelevant. 

I have long wondered about this. I suppose they don't want to carry the smelly bag somewhere else. And more broadly I have finally concluded that the poo bag, as soon as it is hung in the bush, is outside their frame of reference or world view or area of conscious attention or whatever the correct [psychology?] term is. Whatever, it's a selfish act IMO

dogs have been banned from the local sports pitches for years here, but it doesn't get enforced .

Bring on the DNA database and testing and the dog egg problem will evaporate overnight.

It does mean you misidentified the problem with, quote "The only problem is that it is the UK and they are 'pets'"

The problem is there are some selfish and obnoxious folk who own dogs, regardless of if they are seen as 'pets' or security or whatever. From my travels these folk seem to be spread across the planet.

It's not hatred for dogs or dog owners, it's a hatred of the people who don't thoughtfully remove the radioactive poo, in a city where there's more chance of lots of people coming across said poo, it can impact on a lot of people. They're either selfish twits or 'bubble like' and don't register the impact, but it's not nice. 

No, that implies the problem is UK dog owners are perhaps thinking they are a little more special. Not that dogs don't poo in other countries. 

The UK, a nation of animal lovers where it's acceptable to keep a dog inside all day while you work and then let it crap on a sports field or path after. 

Yes and many countries just outright ban dogs on sports fields. I fail to see how anyone can justify not banning them.

Edit. And yes pets is a critical word. Wonder how tolerant folk would be if a farmer took a cow for walk crapping everywhere.  

I think it's the carrying. If your dog takes a crap in the first 800 yards of a planned five mile walk you are left with the options of finding a council bin ( don't hold your breath), carrying it for four and a half miles,  curtailing your walk or hanging it on a tree to collect on the way back.....

Or, very controversially, flicking it.

I'll stick with my Ocram's razor inspired explanation of "worldwide, there are some selfish and obnoxious folk who own dogs".

Good on ya for shoehorning some nationalism into the thread, you might as well, everyone is talking crap on this one. 

It is a bit of UK thing though, where people who might work 12 hour days, live in a 4th floor flat, miles from anywhere green still think it's appropriate to keep 1 or more large dogs etc.. 

The fact you seem to be against the concept of banning dogs from sports fields says it all. 

Not in my experience. There's many countries with this problem, your nationalist approach requires a specific explanation for each one.

I'm in favour in most cases but it wouldn't work everywhere, and may in some cases lead to less sports pitches.

Say's what all? I've said I'm involved in a friends group trying to tackle this problem, and I've said I have personally challenged people who have left dog crap on sport pitches (as well as other open green spaces where kids will play). What exactly are you trying to say?

If New York and Paris can have dog poo problems, I think it's probably more of an urban thing.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/12/why-cant-french-cities-clean...

Why ban from just football pitches? Dogs should be banned from all public spaces and allowed by exception. It isn't right that vast areas of public land are essentially out of bounds for human recreation because people want to take their pets there to bark and shit. Vast swathes of land and hundreds of miles of footpaths have become doggy toilets and devoid of wildlife scared away by an unnatural accumulation of apex predators.

It seems much more civilised to have dedicated areas of scrubby public land of little other ecological or recreational value, where dogs are permitted.

Probably not a vote winner though.

I find myself agreeing lots with all the authoritarian anti-dog proposals on here.

Trying to think of a more friendly alternative - make most public spaces open only to dogs with doggie nappies?

In the small town near us there is a 50m x 40m ish fenced area specifically for dogs next to the kids playground and other grassed leisure space. They've put poo bins in and some obstacles for women of certain age to train their dogs on. Something for everyone. 

Absolute proverbial bag o's... Out of bounds? You're having a laugh. Vast swathes...Jesus Christ. Not a vote winner. You should be banned from public forums in order to reduce the shit one reads.

Wildlife scared by apex preditors? That would be us, mate, the  apex predator screwing up this planet. Better to ban people from all spaces etc.

There’s a simple solution. Before every game the players form a line and walk the pitch to check for dangerous objects. Glass, tin cans, dog mess, etc. 

Take some responsibility for your own safety.

I totally agree. Humans really are a plague on the landscape. 

I left a flat I had in Grenoble after finding a large turd on the doorstep. The fact that the wheelie bins just opposite had caught fire the night before didn't help, mind.

The honey-pot places near me, an NT estate and a Forestry Commission wood, both lovely, are basically crawling with dogs. If I go for a one hour run in either I will likely meet 15-20 dogs, many of them untethered, many of them large, may in groups of two or three. Having had the three experiences with large dogs I spoke of above, which terrified me, I am now nervous every time I meet a big dog.

Of course, most owners are friendly and most will make some effort to restrain their dog if I look nervous, but I am constantly having to make people aware of my approach, ask if the dog will be OK and so on. 

Knowing this in advance then I of course sometimes just decide to go elsewhere. But why should I?

https://www.thelocal.se/discuss/index.php?showtopic=24395&st=0&p=44...

https://www.thelocal.se/discuss/index.php?showtopic=6502&hl=dog

Aha, a google for urban dog poo and Sweden throws up a couple of forum threads of people grumbling about it in Stockholm, to do with bags of poo, and poo being there to step in. It is an urban thing after all. I thought it possibly would be. 

Reading the local.se is a bit like judging Britain by DM and express head lines. Clickbait at best. Plus it is Stockholm, they are all special there. 

I never said any where was poo free. But trying walking your dog on the school fields or any of sports fields in 99.9% of towns and expect to be politely shown the gate. 

RIn reply to DancingOnRock:

I don’t know if you have dogs or not.

I don’t know if you are trolling or not.

What you have said here is typical of some dog owners. For them, any challenge to their doggy world is responded to by laying the blame or responsibility back with the subject and not with themselves and not with their dog.

My dog shits, well you should just look out for it.

My dog bites you, well you shouldn’t have been running along the footpath.

My dog jumps at you, well he’s just having fun.

My dog worries sheep, well he’s never done that before.

The root cause here is not that the people need to clear up after other people’s dogs, but that dogs are allowed to shit where people, including children, play sports.

There's a simpler solution. Dog owners take responsibility for their pet, and don't leave shit lying around.

How on earth can anyone think it's acceptable to leave shit lying around anywhere? Let alone where people play.

Take some responsibility for your f*cking pet. 

No. It’s really not. If there is a danger that you will lose a leg you’d better check where you’re going to be rolling. There’s no point in complaining after the event that someone else left a broken bottle on the pitch. 

Does no one else check children’s playgrounds before letting them run around them? It’s your responsibility as a parent to check these things, not to leave them up to luck hoping no one has left something lying around that will injure your child. 

Spend time in an inner city with a drug problem and you’ll get a pretty nasty wake up call. 

This is just typical of people’s entitled views, it’s always someone else’s fault, the dog owner for letting the dog foul, the park keeper for not keeping the park clean, the council for not banning dogs, but NOT the poor innocent player rolling around on the ground where there is likely to be dog mess, despite (according to this thread) loads of evidence that everyone knows there will be. 

Unbelievable. 

People clearly don’t take responsibility for their pets. No amount of banning them or you complaining to the contrary will change that. 

Do the thing that’s within your control. Don’t blame everyone else. 

A better idea would be a properly regulated and enforced dog licence. If you want to own a dog, you have to demonstrate that you can provide a suitable home and enough time for one, and for each dog you own you have to show that you can maintain control of it at all times by taking a test. All dogs must be DNA recorded so that any poo can be identified - with euthanasia for any offence. This should weed out most of the irresponsible tw*ts who cause all the problems. Professional dog walkers would no longer have any customers, although they should be banned anyway just in case.

Of course I do check for shit where my daughter is playing, it would be irresponsible not too.

I'm still in favour of any legal measures that reduce the amount of it though.

I fit locks to my windows. I still think burglary is unacceptable and that the police should deal with it.

Yes, you are.

”Entitled...”

You clearly don’t understand the difference between expecting something for nothing and wanting dog owners not to have their pets shit on playing fields.

Troll or belligerent dog owner - which is it?

You seem to be missing some stuff about the nature of dog poo.  If I smeared human shit all over your carpet, then coarsley scraped it off, would you be happy?  No?  Perhaps because lots of shit and it’s associated bacterial health hazards is left behind seeping in to the carpet?  It’s no different with sports pitches. 

Would you tell mugging victims to spend some time in Syria and stop being entitled?

No - if my child goes in dog poo I have a share of the blame, I am always looking out and teaching them to.

However the dog owner who left it there is an excerable person with a walking health hazard far worse than my child and yet who can’t be bothered to take anything like the responsibility I do.  I’ve yet to leave Jrs shitty nappy anywhere except a sanitary bin or our home bin.

The fault started with the dog owner and they’re the correct place to stop the fault.

Yup.

You (and others) are trying far too hard to be outraged here. 

No one said it’s not the fault of the dog owners. 

But if you know there’s high likelihood there’s going to be dog mess in the park, surely you’d check where you were going to be playing? It’s common sense. 

See my other posts - does that look like outrage to you?  I maintain a public right of way over my land and I either mow round or over dog shit on a regular basis.  I don’t think I’ve been outraged at all considering.  Just full of despair.

Well, except you projecting on to others “This is just typical of people’s entitled views, it’s always someone else’s fault, the dog owner for letting the dog foul” - your strong implication being that it’s the victims fault not that of the dog owner.  If you actually meant that both parties are at fault, feel free to clarify.

(1) See my comment about shitting on your carpet and scraping it off.  Or do you propose running some sort of residual shit detector over a sports pitch and spray marking areas with recent contamination?  Dogs simply shouldn’t be messing on sports pitches in the first place.

(2) I spend my time checking for dog poo and navigating around it at various places we visit with Jr.  However as someone who isn’t a sociopathic c—t it strikes me as really bloody obvious that I shouldn’t have to.

That is absolutely NOT my experience; mine is that about 1 / 100 owners will make an effort to restrain them. I personally do not like enormous dogs bounding up within 1 inch of me and around me yapping and howling their heads off at me and it happens far too often. The owners INVARIABLY and ALWAYS say the same things, "He's very friendly really" / "He wouldn't hurt a fly"

One medium-sized dog slobbered all over my trousers, had to have them cleaned - I almost asked the owner for the cleaning fee, I will next time

And there in lies the problem. Urban Parks, football fields, village greens etc.. are open free spaces for humans to enjoy, to exercise, to relax etc... 

They are not built or designed as dog walking zones. 

Don’t be so pompous. Open spaces have been there for hundreds of years. Many of them set aside for commoners to graze and execrcise their animals. 

Humans? More false sense of entitlement. 

Using words like victim and misquoting me by ommision certainly doesn’t reduce the sense of outrage and entitlement I’m getting from your posts. 

Yes, growing up on the farm I remember dad having similar problems with silage fields (i.e. grass grown for winter cattle feed) filling with dog shite. 

Hardly unreasonable for getting covered in dog shit

WTF?  Your post is there for all to read.  I quoted part of it, explained my interpretation and asked you to clarify if I misread it.  Instead you snark at me.

Feel free to keep saying this instead of engaging with any of the points I have repeatedly raised with your argument that you have repeatedly ignored.  Perhaps I’m outraged at your inability to do so because of my sense of entitlement to a grown up discussion.

I live in Uppsala, a city 40mins north of Stockholm. I see so little dog poo on the streets (and in the local nature reserves, forests and parks) that it's actually noteworthy when I do.

Grazing through commoners etc.  Yes  graze their animals, but I don't think average Joe could afford a pet to exercise centuries ago. 

On this basis you think it's ok for a farmer to put a few cows on in between football matches? Or is some animal poo more equal than others? (Herbivore poo is less toxic than dog or cats etc)

It is dog shit ffs, it's disgusting and potentially dangerous, there is no place for it on any sports or recreation field.

People have kept dogs for millennia!

No one has said it’s acceptable. All I’ve said is it’s unrealistic to ban animals from open spaces. Why are footballers more important than people enjoying walking their dogs. That’s entitlement! 

A huge open space that’s only used for a couple of hours on a Saturday or Sunday morning? 

Quite a lot of this thread seems to exist in a different reality to me. I reckon that the dogshit situation is infinitely better than it was 20-25 years ago when I was growing up and by and still large moving in the right direction. Obviously there's still work to do but it's not quite the aplopolypse presented above.

Personally I'd be totally fine with banning dogs from playing fields incidentally.
 

Because you’re trying to find something to be outraged about in my post by ignoring sections of It. 

Open spaces are there to be shared by everyone and multi use. If you know that you should be mindful of what other people use them for. 

Dogs leaving mess, kids drinking after dark leaving cans etc. Yes. They shouldn’t leave mess, but they do. 

May local sports centre have banned unorganised football matches because the kids leave their empty sports drinks bottles everywhere. 

Lets just ban everything. That should stop it. 

How on Earth do you do that? Our local playground is about 400 square metres. 

The other weekend my son toppled off his bike and put his hand in it. Then he trod in it getting up. Then he wiped it on his shorts. Then he got on his bike and trod it into the pedals, his foot slipped and it went up the back of his leg. If only I'd checked all areas within 1m of the path before we'd set off our entire day wouldn't have been ruined.

That was not my intent.  My intent was to show you where I believed you were directly contradicting yourself.  Nothing to do with outrage.

*Some* open spaces.  Others are children’s play parks or sports pitches and are not multi use and sometimes not for everyone - at least not at all stages of their life.

Ignoring how you are wrong as is obvious from the thread and as I set out immediately above, you will see the other posters and I are mindful of what other people use them for (dog shit disposal) and act accordingly.  But - we are not happy with it.  Do our views not matter in your world that is for everyone?

Yep. All views are welcome. 

Blanket bans on everyone just because a few behave antisocially is not a view that I agree with.   

No one is saying ban from all open spaces, only ban from sports and recreation fields. It is not just about weekend footballers. It's about anyone using them at any time. 

People let their dogs crap everywhere, bins don't work, bags get abandoned.. It's been going on for decades. I say they've had their chance and an outright ban on all sports and recreation fields is long over due. 

In the past yeah. Sheep do ok grazing rural cricket pitches in the off season too. 

A factor in sweden is that you'll struggle to buy any puppy for less than £700-800, vet bills aren't cheap and there are rarely enforced rules that dogs aren't supposed to be housed all day when people work. Many house associations don't allow dogs in their apartments.  People tend to pause for thought on the appropriateness of a dog before spending.

In a way, dogs are just a lightning rod for our inability to rub along in  busier, more crowded environments. People have always been quite selfish, it's just there are more of them. In a lot of ways the situation with dog shit is much better than it was in the 70s when it was socially acceptable for people to leave dog shit where it lay. Certainly our local park is MUCH cleaner than when I moved here 20 odd years ago, that's in part provision of  bins, partly bylaws but mostly self regulation. People (mostly other dog walkers) will call other people out and so the shit gets bagged and binned. 

On less public sites, there's more poo. I spent last sunday raking and clearing on a popular dog walking run. There wasn't a lot of it, but it was still a problem. However chances are it was a dog walker that is reporting the ASB, It was a dog walker that stopped the fire spreading earlier in the year and I know for a fact that it's a dog walker who is clearing back the overhang roses, because I've met him and thanked him for his hard work.

Round here dogs have been banned for a long time (decades) from playing areas and dedicated sports fields and rightly so. What concerns me about the Cardiff proposal is that it is much more wide ranging than that and doesn't address the wider ASB problems Cardiff (or any other big city) will have in its parks and other common use areas. It also wont deal with enforcement as dog wardens are a long way down an austerity stricken local authorities priorities, even though dog mess is always high in a local councillors hit list.

I used to muck out stables bare-handed, as a youngster, and I fell off a good few horses, too, and landed on cow pats more than once -- not ideal but softer than rocks in any case.

Herbivore excrement is much, much more tolerable than carnivore excrement and modern-day cereal-fed carnivores must be the worst of the worst.

so were there 9 million dogs millennia ago?

Were there 4.5billion people a millennia ago?

As posted fairly eloquently above by toad: It’s not about dogs, or really about people, it’s about people’s lack of consideration for each other in the face of overcrowding and people are starting to get very selfish as what they see as their own personal space being invaded. 

Cars/bicycles.

Dog walkers/footballers.

Fat people/thin people. 

We are basically returning to be very tribal. 

Our councils policy is a very sensible no dogs in play parks or playing pitches.

Its a huge area, but some owners( the selfish entitled dog owners)  still insist on walking their dogs on playing pitches, some do bag waste and remove it , and some bag it leave the bag lying around, others don't even  bother to bag it, so there is dog waste  on the playing area.

Even when it is bagged there is often a residue left, hence the sensible rule that you don't exercise dogs on these designated areas so that children are not exposed to waste or waste residue. 

Nb On reading our parks policy on dogs, it also says no commercial use, so dog walkers will not be allowed in the park.

 Some have  up to 6 dogs in our park.

( not long ago a local professional  dog walker was attacked by one of her dogs and lost an arm. ( she was a trained animal behaviourist !)  it was not in the park, but it could have been . 

I would be surprised if most councils don't already have the no dogs on playing areas, it's whether they enforce it , is what makes the difference. 

Our local cal park has  just installed CCTV, I wonder if that will help in our park. It us right beside the now fenced off Kiddy play park, so that might be ok, the larger playing pitches might be the areas that is harder to enforce. 

Pro dog walkers now to be banned from parks by West Dunbartonshire Council under their new ( Draft) policy . It's the way to go for all councils in my view. If your council want to give them a designated area fair enough, but not free access to the whole park. 

The post was about parks and playing pitches.

(And object to being branded as a dog hater just because I want my grandchildren's playing areas to be safe and clean ) 

Yep, and cats dig up our expensive plants as well as killing others with their waste . 

That will be why I struggle to walk around the small garden of my terraced house without treading in cat poo and walking it back into my home again. :-|

If the cat which poo's in my garden, poo's in it once a day, and leaves 2 or 3 splodges, that's 2 or 3 x 365 splodges of cat poo throughout the year, meaning that I've fresh cat poo, and deposits of mouldering cat poo at different stages of decomposition in my garden at any one time. 

I like cats 'to commune with', but a lot of cats do leave a lot of poo in other people's gardens without burying it. The smaller the garden the more of a problem it can be.  It's bloody annoying - to be honest.

But, DO you agree that dogs should be banned from sports pitches, or is it for others to clear up their mess?

If there wasn't the problem of dog poo being left being - with it being stinky and unpleasant, and the problem of eye sight issues, or blindness, I ([personally) very much doubt anybody who uses playing fields for sports would have any problems with dogs being exercised on playing fields. I was listening to Radio Wales yesterday or the day before and the issue of dogs on playing fields came up, and rugby players losing limbs because of infections related to dog feces came up, and players having blindness in one eye did came up, too. It's not impossible for dog walkers to exercise their dogs on pavements, and for them to walk them for long enough that they get enough exercise, it possibly would do a better job of wearing down their 'finger nails' than walking them on grass, too. 

I wouldn't know what the chances are of blindness and what have you are occurring because of what is in dog feces, but it's about more than being tribal, I would suggest. It's practical or 'experiential', I think. 

The toxicara thing isn't straightforward because its a complicated lifecycle. Cysts can and do turn up in ground that has never seen a dog, and in any event its not only carried by dogs, and foxes and ( as one example) earthworms can't read. I know this because I once shared an office with a poor postgrad who spent a couple of years disecting dog shit and counting toxocara cysts. At least i didn't have to share a lab with her....