No fines? That’s absurd, given the extent of the problem.
Not that long ago dogs were generally left outside to roam the streets, like teenagers at the time they stayed out, dodging cars and occasionally getting their hole in the park until they got hungry or bored then they headed home. The consequence of this was that the pavements and greens were littered with dog shit. Every game of football or kick the can resulted in one kid slipping on a lump of dog toffee and having to pick it out of the grooves on his nicks trainers with a stick before chasing his mates with said shitty stick. Simpler times indeed.
Now we live in a world comparatively shite free, where dogs stay at home, just venturing out for a light stroll with their owners who usually pick up their crap in a little bag and dispose of it responsibly, some even hang the bags on trees as a kind of homage to days gone by.
My experience from living abroad is that we have a 3 part problem;
1. Not enough bins/facilities/dog parks
2. Owners that have not completed training to own a dog and properly understand the importance of dog training
3. Lack of public shaming.
Context:
Having lived in Canada, there are plenty of facilities and dog parks and the streets are free from dog shit. Owners train their dogs and I’ve personally witnessed on two occasions when a dog was barking and was uncontrolled around other dogs, the owners would give the uncontrolled dog owner shit for not having their dog properly trained.
I feel that calling someone out on the spot if they don’t pick up their dog shit is where the change needs to happen.
When I had a dog I always carried poobags everywhere I went, even if I didn’t have her with me. It just became the norm.
As a member of the tidy towns committee in my local village I one day went out with a shovel and a black sack and scooped all the shite. For a small place there was a lot. It’s a piece peeve of mine as I’ve kids that could walk, roll slip in it etc. I contacted the dog warden by email asking if they could come around and give a few warnings to the owners animals who dogs could be found any day of the week wandering and shitting.
Never got a reply
As a dog owner – nothing pisses me off more then poop bags left hanging on trees or out and about I mean ffs you took the effort of picking it up – was that last step really so hard.
Let’s get real – I would say the fear of being abused / assaulted for any council worker responsible for enforcing this is the issue.
I’m in favor of having to submit their dna when you pay for their license. Can lookup any offending poop and the problem is solved. poop problem ? What poop problem. Own a dog not in the register ? It’s getting swabbed and added or destroyed. We’ve had the trust era and it didn’t work… time for a dna register …
After a quick google – the swab is 40-50 dollars – add post and that’s tops 60? That’s pretty cheap compared to the relative initial adoption / registration with council laws at present.
Well obviously, when was the last time anyone here saw a dog warden or a park ranger?!
I live next to a few parks. They all have posters with “pick up your dog poo or you’re fined…” but there’s no bin anywhere, just the normal bins around bus stops and they are far outside the parks.
Then one evening I was walking my dog and saw a gardai patrolling in the park. He told me they’re not the ones giving fines for dog poo, he didn’t know who is supposed to fine people for not picking after their dogs…
So there are 2 big problems in this regard
Does this mean positions for wardens are not filled and vacant? Hope they spent that money wisely by shopping around…
There are zero bins for dog poo in my area. Yet somehow, miraculously, I’m always able to pick up my dogs poo and bring it home. I can’t for the life of me understand why this is. People keep telling me it’s the fault of lack of bins. But every day I still end up bringing my bagged dog poo home. What am I doing wrong?!
Seriously though, who thinks this is even enforceable? People walk dogs from before dawn, until well into the evening. There is realistically never going to be substantial enforcement of dog fouling. Call me pessimistic, but that’s how I see it.
Irish wolfhound used to do horse size shit outside primary school. Someone with a pram wouldn’t see and there’d be shit all along the path from the wheels and presumably into classrooms too.
Surely a bit of CCTV in problem spots could go a long way?
My local, large, park. You walk through it and then see bags of shite just dumped there at either entrance. Was trying to work out wtf was happening, and came to the conclusion that it was because there isn’t a single bin in the whole park. So these people have walked all the way through looking for a bin and then given up.
Its shite, literally, but you can see the mindset a little bit. They wanted to find a bin and eventually gave up. Was out in some new park in the midlands recently, a huge place, and first thing that happened was the person I was with’s dog did a big shit. Walked for a few hours in this newly designed park and not a single bin in sight. Even the coffee shop didn’t have a bin. Back in the car after those few hours and the shit needed to go in the boot. We haven’t thought through some of the places where dogs are walked.
I’m not saying any of this justifies the thing, Just saying you can see how it might happen at the edges. That a lot of people just give up.
Simple… withdraw all private clampers’ licences/permits and then re-purpose those gnarly cunts into dogshit and litter wardens going around in pairs. With their attitudes and ‘work ethic’ that would solve the problems PDQ.
Leitrim county council came out in 2020/2021 saying they were going to extract dog DNA from dog shit, match it to the offending dog and fine the owner.
Did this ever take off?
3 parks around me so I can go for a 15 min walk or 2 hours. My biggest gripe is in the parks, only 1 has bins and they are very few and far between. I won’t walk on the grass because I’m guaranteed to stop in shite. I always bring the poo home to my own bin or if I’m in that park with the bin, I’ll bring it there. It isn’t always pleasant but I still do.
I constantly pass poo bags thrown into bushes, floating in the river, or just tossed aside.
This behaviour is filthy. It takes 2 seconds to lift it up in the moment. I live in canada now and once saw a lady BAREHAND a turd because she forgot to bring a bag! Start dishing out the fines
Drogheda is a total shit show.. literally… its a 2.5km walk from my house to the town center and you might as well be playing hopscotch all the way into town.. the ammount of dog shit on the path’s you would think there are roaming packs of wild dogs crapping all over the place
Imagine how nice the world would be if people took personal responsibility seriously.
Pay people €20/hr to cycle around the place with go-pro cameras, upload footage to Faecesbook.
The way the city handles dogs in general isn’t good in the first place. The poo is a symptom to a much larger systematic problem
First, they have this dog license, which nobody buys because… whats the point.
Second, they don’t even attempt to accommodate dog owners at all. Lack of bins (they don’t have to be poo specific), lack of enforcement of leash laws and overall weird sentiment around dogs makes this problem.
Heres the fix for all dog problems, and how to fund it.
1. INCREASE dog license fee by €30. Then buy Dog poo bags for the entire city with that money. If I can buy enough bags for under a 12 euro on Amazon myself. The city would get an even bigger deal. Then, put dog poo bags at every bin, **and send poo bags to every dog owner.** I guarentee you that more people will by licenses and there will be far less poo out there.
2. Use the additional money to hire animal enforcement and care officers. Fund DSCPA more and other rescues, and give them more latitude to ensure animal livlihoods. SHOW you care about animals beyond “get off my lawn”
3. Use any additional money to add more bins, everywhere. The city is disgusting with trash everywhere. It’s easy to not care about “one more piece of shit on the ground” when shit is literally everywhere.
4. Address the off leash problem — Yes, its a problem. I get its “normal” to off leash your dog everywhere, but its dangerous for the dog, the people subjected to it, and generally annoying if the dog is misbehaved. I know I know, this CAN be great for some dogs owners, but the lack of training of dogs that run around and do fuck all doesn’t allow this.
​
Bonus Things need to be done, not related to dog shit:
* Allow dogs on all transport, and make it explicit. This whole shite about “its up to the driver” makes public transport not feasible. Have rules, require whatever, just make it normal for dogs and their owners to get around the city.
* Government funded dog races, and everything that entails should stop immediately.
Imagine how many fighter jet keychains they could buy with all that money.
Why was this published other than to tell people there’s no consequence to picking up after your dog or not? Does it need to be worse before they can justify ridiculously punitive fines?
Is this like their HSE strategy? Make the problem worse until the only option is privatization?
This country is so soft on challenging bad behaviour. No fines from the biggest council in Ireland…
The situation is so bad in parts of Cork that I really didn’t enjoy walking to the shops anymore. (Turner’s Cross, right near Michael Martins office)
Can you report someone to the dog warden in your area or will you get get laughed at ?
In my estate there is a green area and it full off dog poo including paths and it prevents children playing in that area.
A dog owner every morning and evening walks the dogs with no leads and never picks up the Poo. Not sure how to go about it but waiting on the right moment to confront them.
I’m my town, there is 2 bins, both are within 10 feet of each other on a kids playground, where, there are No Dogs Allowed!
I get that it’s still people’s responsibilities to carry it, but realistically, bins should be available, it’s ridiculous. I carry mine, but it’s wishful thinking to think everyone will
I really don’t get it. It’s not difficult to pick it up. My dog has some weird penchant for poo’ing on top of plants, but I can still scoop it up. If you don’t like picking up poo, don’t get a bloody dog.
In our town it seems like a lot of the poo is from people letting their dogs run loose. Bins wont solve that problem.
Who’s responsible for issuing fines and why haven’t they been doing their jobs?
28 comments
The next two weeks are critical
No fines? That’s absurd, given the extent of the problem.
Not that long ago dogs were generally left outside to roam the streets, like teenagers at the time they stayed out, dodging cars and occasionally getting their hole in the park until they got hungry or bored then they headed home. The consequence of this was that the pavements and greens were littered with dog shit. Every game of football or kick the can resulted in one kid slipping on a lump of dog toffee and having to pick it out of the grooves on his nicks trainers with a stick before chasing his mates with said shitty stick. Simpler times indeed.
Now we live in a world comparatively shite free, where dogs stay at home, just venturing out for a light stroll with their owners who usually pick up their crap in a little bag and dispose of it responsibly, some even hang the bags on trees as a kind of homage to days gone by.
My experience from living abroad is that we have a 3 part problem;
1. Not enough bins/facilities/dog parks
2. Owners that have not completed training to own a dog and properly understand the importance of dog training
3. Lack of public shaming.
Context:
Having lived in Canada, there are plenty of facilities and dog parks and the streets are free from dog shit. Owners train their dogs and I’ve personally witnessed on two occasions when a dog was barking and was uncontrolled around other dogs, the owners would give the uncontrolled dog owner shit for not having their dog properly trained.
I feel that calling someone out on the spot if they don’t pick up their dog shit is where the change needs to happen.
When I had a dog I always carried poobags everywhere I went, even if I didn’t have her with me. It just became the norm.
As a member of the tidy towns committee in my local village I one day went out with a shovel and a black sack and scooped all the shite. For a small place there was a lot. It’s a piece peeve of mine as I’ve kids that could walk, roll slip in it etc. I contacted the dog warden by email asking if they could come around and give a few warnings to the owners animals who dogs could be found any day of the week wandering and shitting.
Never got a reply
As a dog owner – nothing pisses me off more then poop bags left hanging on trees or out and about I mean ffs you took the effort of picking it up – was that last step really so hard.
Let’s get real – I would say the fear of being abused / assaulted for any council worker responsible for enforcing this is the issue.
I’m in favor of having to submit their dna when you pay for their license. Can lookup any offending poop and the problem is solved. poop problem ? What poop problem. Own a dog not in the register ? It’s getting swabbed and added or destroyed. We’ve had the trust era and it didn’t work… time for a dna register …
After a quick google – the swab is 40-50 dollars – add post and that’s tops 60? That’s pretty cheap compared to the relative initial adoption / registration with council laws at present.
Well obviously, when was the last time anyone here saw a dog warden or a park ranger?!
I live next to a few parks. They all have posters with “pick up your dog poo or you’re fined…” but there’s no bin anywhere, just the normal bins around bus stops and they are far outside the parks.
Then one evening I was walking my dog and saw a gardai patrolling in the park. He told me they’re not the ones giving fines for dog poo, he didn’t know who is supposed to fine people for not picking after their dogs…
So there are 2 big problems in this regard
Does this mean positions for wardens are not filled and vacant? Hope they spent that money wisely by shopping around…
There are zero bins for dog poo in my area. Yet somehow, miraculously, I’m always able to pick up my dogs poo and bring it home. I can’t for the life of me understand why this is. People keep telling me it’s the fault of lack of bins. But every day I still end up bringing my bagged dog poo home. What am I doing wrong?!
Seriously though, who thinks this is even enforceable? People walk dogs from before dawn, until well into the evening. There is realistically never going to be substantial enforcement of dog fouling. Call me pessimistic, but that’s how I see it.
Irish wolfhound used to do horse size shit outside primary school. Someone with a pram wouldn’t see and there’d be shit all along the path from the wheels and presumably into classrooms too.
Surely a bit of CCTV in problem spots could go a long way?
My local, large, park. You walk through it and then see bags of shite just dumped there at either entrance. Was trying to work out wtf was happening, and came to the conclusion that it was because there isn’t a single bin in the whole park. So these people have walked all the way through looking for a bin and then given up.
Its shite, literally, but you can see the mindset a little bit. They wanted to find a bin and eventually gave up. Was out in some new park in the midlands recently, a huge place, and first thing that happened was the person I was with’s dog did a big shit. Walked for a few hours in this newly designed park and not a single bin in sight. Even the coffee shop didn’t have a bin. Back in the car after those few hours and the shit needed to go in the boot. We haven’t thought through some of the places where dogs are walked.
I’m not saying any of this justifies the thing, Just saying you can see how it might happen at the edges. That a lot of people just give up.
Simple… withdraw all private clampers’ licences/permits and then re-purpose those gnarly cunts into dogshit and litter wardens going around in pairs. With their attitudes and ‘work ethic’ that would solve the problems PDQ.
Leitrim county council came out in 2020/2021 saying they were going to extract dog DNA from dog shit, match it to the offending dog and fine the owner.
Did this ever take off?
3 parks around me so I can go for a 15 min walk or 2 hours. My biggest gripe is in the parks, only 1 has bins and they are very few and far between. I won’t walk on the grass because I’m guaranteed to stop in shite. I always bring the poo home to my own bin or if I’m in that park with the bin, I’ll bring it there. It isn’t always pleasant but I still do.
I constantly pass poo bags thrown into bushes, floating in the river, or just tossed aside.
This behaviour is filthy. It takes 2 seconds to lift it up in the moment. I live in canada now and once saw a lady BAREHAND a turd because she forgot to bring a bag! Start dishing out the fines
Drogheda is a total shit show.. literally… its a 2.5km walk from my house to the town center and you might as well be playing hopscotch all the way into town.. the ammount of dog shit on the path’s you would think there are roaming packs of wild dogs crapping all over the place
Imagine how nice the world would be if people took personal responsibility seriously.
Pay people €20/hr to cycle around the place with go-pro cameras, upload footage to Faecesbook.
The way the city handles dogs in general isn’t good in the first place. The poo is a symptom to a much larger systematic problem
First, they have this dog license, which nobody buys because… whats the point.
Second, they don’t even attempt to accommodate dog owners at all. Lack of bins (they don’t have to be poo specific), lack of enforcement of leash laws and overall weird sentiment around dogs makes this problem.
Heres the fix for all dog problems, and how to fund it.
1. INCREASE dog license fee by €30. Then buy Dog poo bags for the entire city with that money. If I can buy enough bags for under a 12 euro on Amazon myself. The city would get an even bigger deal. Then, put dog poo bags at every bin, **and send poo bags to every dog owner.** I guarentee you that more people will by licenses and there will be far less poo out there.
2. Use the additional money to hire animal enforcement and care officers. Fund DSCPA more and other rescues, and give them more latitude to ensure animal livlihoods. SHOW you care about animals beyond “get off my lawn”
3. Use any additional money to add more bins, everywhere. The city is disgusting with trash everywhere. It’s easy to not care about “one more piece of shit on the ground” when shit is literally everywhere.
4. Address the off leash problem — Yes, its a problem. I get its “normal” to off leash your dog everywhere, but its dangerous for the dog, the people subjected to it, and generally annoying if the dog is misbehaved. I know I know, this CAN be great for some dogs owners, but the lack of training of dogs that run around and do fuck all doesn’t allow this.
​
Bonus Things need to be done, not related to dog shit:
* Allow dogs on all transport, and make it explicit. This whole shite about “its up to the driver” makes public transport not feasible. Have rules, require whatever, just make it normal for dogs and their owners to get around the city.
* Government funded dog races, and everything that entails should stop immediately.
Imagine how many fighter jet keychains they could buy with all that money.
Why was this published other than to tell people there’s no consequence to picking up after your dog or not? Does it need to be worse before they can justify ridiculously punitive fines?
Is this like their HSE strategy? Make the problem worse until the only option is privatization?
This country is so soft on challenging bad behaviour. No fines from the biggest council in Ireland…
The situation is so bad in parts of Cork that I really didn’t enjoy walking to the shops anymore. (Turner’s Cross, right near Michael Martins office)
Can you report someone to the dog warden in your area or will you get get laughed at ?
In my estate there is a green area and it full off dog poo including paths and it prevents children playing in that area.
A dog owner every morning and evening walks the dogs with no leads and never picks up the Poo. Not sure how to go about it but waiting on the right moment to confront them.
I’m my town, there is 2 bins, both are within 10 feet of each other on a kids playground, where, there are No Dogs Allowed!
I get that it’s still people’s responsibilities to carry it, but realistically, bins should be available, it’s ridiculous. I carry mine, but it’s wishful thinking to think everyone will
I really don’t get it. It’s not difficult to pick it up. My dog has some weird penchant for poo’ing on top of plants, but I can still scoop it up. If you don’t like picking up poo, don’t get a bloody dog.
In our town it seems like a lot of the poo is from people letting their dogs run loose. Bins wont solve that problem.
Who’s responsible for issuing fines and why haven’t they been doing their jobs?