Dog poo.

lanomist

As a dog owner i walk my dog around Newbridge on a daily basis.I always pick up after my dog but the amount of dog owners who do not is unbelievable. The streets and the riverside park are a disgrace, with dog poo everywhere. These dog owners are completely irresponsible and i cannot understand why the litter and traffic wardens are not catching and prosecuting them. On Friday afternoon i saw a gentleman letting his dog poo right outside the door of Youngs chemists on Main Street. As he walked away i asked him was he not going to clean it up,he told me to f--- off in a foreign accent. Its time something was done to put a stop to this problem.

ultraman1

lanomist wrote: »

As a dog owner i walk my dog around Newbridge on a daily basis.I always pick up after my dog but the amount of dog owners who do not is unbelievable. The streets and the riverside park are a disgrace, with dog poo everywhere. These dog owners are completely irresponsible and i cannot understand why the litter and traffic wardens are not catching and prosecuting them. On Friday afternoon i saw a gentleman letting his dog poo right outside the door of Youngs chemists on Main Street. As he walked away i asked him was he not going to clean it up,he told me to f--- off in a foreign accent. Its time something was done to put a stop to this problem.

same here in clane,its like a **** fest in the mornings walking the kids to school,some people have zero respect for anyone,i know nobody or ever heard of anybody being procecuted for dog fouling,....

Joe Public

Same in Celbridge, owners have been spotted with dogs doing their poo on the footpath and then just walking on. Some very uncivil people about.

STForSale

Same in Kilcock, the village is disappearing under it!
I was recently going to write to Kildare CC to ask how many people where fined for this in the last 12 Months, my guess would be zero.
I say write because they don't reply to emails and don't answer phones!

Karlitto

I cannot stand people not picking up poo after their dogs when they poo on foot paths or walkways. However, in a field with long grass, its no problem.

Councillor

Dog poo is also a massive issue in Maynooth. Problem with fining them is for the Litter Warden to catch them in the act. Also if you observe it happening unless you know the person you cannot report who has done it. A change in the Law for it to be an offence for the dog owner not to carry a dog poo bag might help.

Karlitto

Councillor wrote: »

Dog poo is also a massive issue in Maynooth. Problem with fining them is for the Litter Warden to catch them in the act. Also if you observe it happening unless you know the person you cannot report who has done it. A change in the Law for it to be an offence for the dog owner not to carry a dog poo bag might help.

It is an outdated law, and funny that dog wardens cannot issue fines for it as it is not covered under the control of dogs act but rather the litter act.

It needs to be updated with your suggestion, and clarification on where it is an offence. Like I said, long grassed fields/forested areas should be fine. After all, we do have foxes, badgers and such which poo in such areas.

The whole point around the dog poo not being picked up was that the bacteria in the poo, if a child managed to get it in their eyes COULD blind them, so, areas where children play + well used public walkways (foot paths, trails in parks where it is evident that people walk) should be areas targeted for such enforcement.

STForSale

Councillor wrote: »

Dog poo is also a massive issue in Maynooth. Problem with fining them is for the Litter Warden to catch them in the act. Also if you observe it happening unless you know the person you cannot report who has done it. A change in the Law for it to be an offence for the dog owner not to carry a dog poo bag might help.

Haven't seen one of those in years. Do we still have them?

Karlitto

STForSale wrote: »

Haven't seen one of those in years. Do we still have them?

Yep, the litter warden and dog warden were tag teaming down at castletown house last year. Which as far as I can recall is not under the dog wardens jurisdiction as it is apparently OPW land.

Joe Public

There is nothing wrong with the litter act and it covers dog poo in public areas as being an offence. The implementation of the Litter Act is the issue, the Litter Wardens and Gardai can enforce the Litter Act. Any person can report a littering offence but you need enough info to identify someone to successfully follow up. If you know the dog owner's name or can associate them with a car reg# then that's good enough.

STForSale

Joe Public wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with the litter act and it covers dog poo in public areas as being an offence. The implementation of the Litter Act is the issue, the Litter Wardens and Gardai can enforce the Litter Act. Any person can report a littering offence but you need enough info to identify someone to successfully follow up. If you know the dog owner's name or can associate them with a car reg# then that's good enough.

Agreed, if just one person got the max fine and their name printed in the local paper,compliace would rockett.

beertons

I do 2 laps of the park every day. Usually on my second lap, I come across fresh stuff that wasn't there on lap 1. Yet, I don't see a dog anywhere. Gets very frustrating.

Karlitto

STForSale wrote: »

Agreed, if just one person got the max fine and their name printed in the local paper,compliace would rockett.

Naw it wouldn't

STForSale

Well the person who was 4K lighter would certainly think twice!

rinkal26783

I live in malahide and its pretty clean.

Karlitto

STForSale wrote: »

Well the person who was 4K lighter would certainly think twice!

Max fine is 3k, but still, it doesn't make people do it, have you ever called a person up who's dog has taken a poo on a footpath and walked on? They are cheeky bstards.

STForSale

Karlitto wrote: »

Max fine is 3k, but still, it doesn't make people do it, have you ever called a person up who's dog has taken a poo on a footpath and walked on? They are cheeky bstards.

I'm sure they can, but surely enforcement is the councils job, I try to avoid conflict where possible.
Laws won't change this behaviour, enforcement of the law will.

froggie76

This is a massive problem in Newbridge.
Our walk to school every morning is a game of dodge the poo!! The thing that really gets my goat though is the people who bring dogs on the school run, let them do the deed in the school yard and act as if nothing happened when confronted!:eek:

Councillor

Quote "I'm sure they can, but surely enforcement is the councils job, I try to avoid conflict where possible.
Laws won't change this behaviour, enforcement of the law will."

As I pointed out earlier it is very difficult to enforce unless they are caught in the act.

STForSale

Councillor wrote: »

Quote "I'm sure they can, but surely enforcement is the councils job, I try to avoid conflict where possible.
Laws won't change this behaviour, enforcement of the law will."

As I pointed out earlier it is very difficult to enforce unless they are caught in the act.

I dont see the difficulty myself.
Having litter wardens patroling and handing out fines is all it would take.
What am I missing?

Karlitto

Here is a thought.

We need more dog and litter wardens, agreed?

Well, how about getting some of the people on the dole to do it for an extra 20/50 quid a week?

STForSale

Karlitto wrote: »

Here is a thought.

We need more dog and litter wardens, agreed?

Well, how about getting some of the people on the dole to do it for an extra 20/50 quid a week?

To good of an idea to ever get implemented.
We'll just continue to blame the legislation, lack or resources, enforcment difficulties, or some other politicians response.

Litter wardens should be self financing through fines.The cost to the local authorities would be nothing and the result would be a clean environment for everyone.

Councillor

There are two Litter Wardens to cover county Kildare. So it is not always easy to catch dog owners acting illegally. Councils are not allowed to employ more workers under the recruitment ban. Even if there were 1,000 litter wardens it would still be a problem catching dogs in the act. As I pointed out before the simplest way is to make it illegal to walk dogs without a poo skoop and bag.

STForSale

Councillor wrote: »

There are two Litter Wardens to cover county Kildare. So it is not always easy to catch dog owners acting illegally. Councils are not allowed to employ more workers under the recruitment ban. Even if there were 1,000 litter wardens it would still be a problem catching dogs in the act. As I pointed out before the simplest way is to make it illegal to walk dogs without a poo skoop and bag.

Having a poop scoop and using it are very different things.
Who would have the powers of search to check the owner is carrying one
or is this the next piece of legislation needed?

Catching dogs in the act is not the problem, on any given day walking around town I'll see several incidents of this.

Litter wardens doing their job is the solution.

Councillor

I can assure you that Litter Wardens do their job and it is mostly to do with the people who throw litter away. If they come across dogs fouling they fine the individual. I won't be writing any new Law but I imagine it would be quite simple to make it an offence for a dog walker not to show his poo scoop and bag to the Litter/Dog Warden!

Synyster Shadow

I live in a small village and people who live along the main street let there dogs out on the street and let them do these business. We also have equestrian centre here and often horse poo all over the paths. No one cleans up at all ever. For some reason my dog actually never poo's outside our garden starting to think he's odd?! But tryin to avoid poo walking him or goin to the shop is awful. And now I'll have a buggy to get around it all too. The frustration is definitely there. The local FAS scheme has to clean up after dog and horse owners bit unfair

STForSale

Councillor wrote: »

I can assure you that Litter Wardens do their job and it is mostly to do with the people who throw litter away. If they come across dogs fouling they fine the individual. I won't be writing any new Law but I imagine it would be quite simple to make it an offence for a dog walker not to show his poo scoop and bag to the Litter/Dog Warden!

The offenders are by definition irresponsible people who know they are commiting an offence, making it an additional offence not to carry a scoop?
I just don't see it making a difference so we'll have to agree to differ.

beertons

There are plenty of poo bags and bins around our park, and the place is still covered in ****. I think it should be brought up in schools. Teach the kids. They'll make noise when they see it happen. A bit like when we were young, we were taught to make noise if we saw someone offering sweets in the park.

Joe Public

Councillor wrote: »

There are two Litter Wardens to cover county Kildare. So it is not always easy to catch dog owners acting illegally. Councils are not allowed to employ more workers under the recruitment ban. Even if there were 1,000 litter wardens it would still be a problem catching dogs in the act. As I pointed out before the simplest way is to make it illegal to walk dogs without a poo skoop and bag.

The policing of the litter act should be given out to a private company similar to the paid parking wardens. A proper system needs to be put in place and people should fear the litter warden just like the parking wardens. Name and shame for successful prosecutions needs to be re-introduced.

Karlitto

Name and shame for successful prosecutions needs to be re-introduced.

I disagree, I think it is a pathetic American means of punishment.

baaba maal

Joe Public wrote: »

The policing of the litter act should be given out to a private company similar to the paid parking wardens. A proper system needs to be put in place and people should fear the litter warden just like the parking wardens. Name and shame for successful prosecutions needs to be re-introduced.

The ability of a council to name and shame people prosecuted under the Litter Pollution Act was removed by the Data Protection Commissioner. Where previously, councils could put an ad in the local papers listing the names and addresses of the offenders, this is no longer possible as it was deemed to be a misuse of the data. Ironically, the local papers can send a journalist to court, check through the records and print the details- the difference being that the council isn't publishing it. Ridiculous situation.