Dog poo hanging in trees.

The Forestry Commission operate a 'Flick and Stick' policy, I.e. bag the poo in areas around visitor centres and cafes etc, but 'flick and stick' it in wooded areas. Seems about right to me
www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8pymrq

I hope i’m a responsible dog owner: I always carry poo bags and pick up (unless in inaccessible ‘wilderness’ where every conceivable form of animal dropping exists!). Most importantly, I worm my dogs every 3 months. I still get annoyed by the lack of public bins (not only poo bins) everywhere - I have contacted our local council and it seems they’d rather have rubbish of all kinds everywhere than pay for someone to empty bins ...

Our local council gave a residents group two dog poo bins. However once they were full people piled up bags on top of the bins and on the floor around the bins. It turned out that nobody was responsible for emptying them. The residents group were sure the council had promised to empty them, but they were red bins and the council only empty green ones. Red ones are the responsibility of the park wardens, but as they weren't in a park they wouldn't empty them either. Finally a solution was reached as the local vet's surgery now kindly empty them and dispose of it with their waste.

No Polly Perkins, it should not be left where it is -ready for some unsuspecting soul or a child to tread in it. I take the view that people too lazy to pick up after their animals would not take the responsibility of worming the dogs -leaving all of the attendant consequences to anyone but themselves. We have stopped walking in the woods close to our home because of all the filth left by irresponsible dog owners and certainly would not feel that our GCs would be safe. I am of the view that there should be areas where dogs can be walked and others where dogs are banned - that would address the problems of dog owners and those of us who don’t enjoy having to constantly dodge dog mess on our walks

Everywhere in the beautiful countryside near my house..on trees,on stone walls and hung on farm gates, it sickens and angers me WHY do people go to the trouble of buying poo bags,taking them on the walk and then DUMP it??? It's horrible!

Pollyperkins.
Nothing surprises me these days.
I used to enjoy, when wanting a bit of peace and quiet, a walk in our local church yard which had an adjoining cemetery. I say enjoy.? not any more
There was an area of beautifully kept war graves and a designated area for the graves of children. These areas always left me in tears. In spite of signs, dogs must be kept on leads, 'please place dog waste in containers provided' it was abused. It saddened me to see owners not only allowing their pets to chase over the graves but ignoring the fact the animals had also done other 'things' and left it lying there. I spoke to the church warden who said 'there was nothing they could do about it'.
Speech less , unusual for me ,I walked away in disgust. What can be done in situations like what you and I observed.

Coco51.Yes a ban would be the answer but who would want the job to ensure it was carried out.? I did contact the local council dog warden. Were the dogs dangerous? were the owners there.?
Clearly did not want to get involved.

I really hate bags of dog poo being left anywhere, they smell so bad. We have a council bin for garden waste which is collected every other week and find that early morning dog walkers dump their (non-compostable) bags in our green bin on the day that it is left out for collection - really nasty.
We can see a nice green space from our windows and regularly see people allowing their dogs to foul the more hidden area at the back, where there are trees. Many only pick up after their dogs when they can see somebody is watching them.
I also hate it when dogs are allowed to wee on our front step - isn't it strange that dog owners don't simply use their own steps?!

Coco There was a common near where we used to live and the council bowed to local pressure to create a dog free area. They built a small enclosure from which dogs were banned, right in the middle of an open space - so instead of dogs being confined, the chidren were expected to use the small enclosure rather than the open land. Quite ridiculous.

Our village promotes this myth buster

THE POO FAIRY IS DEAD!!!!

I don't buy the 'collecting it later' line. I have a very large oval green in front of my house. Toddlers and older children enjoy a kick about and dog walkers have a slow stroll round the green letting their dogs do what dogs do. Some owners pop it in a bag and take it with them. Other owners pop it in a bag which they then hang on the branches of the lovely 15ft blossom trees which edge the green. Then, and there are many, others let their dog foul on the green, on my front path or anywhere else the dog cares to aim its rear end. One guy does this every day. I have gone out and stood next to him while his dog craps under my hedge. He doesn't bat an eyelid. 'Not bothered'. If an owner cant't bag up dog mess and carry that bag until they find a bin, or get home, then there is something very wrong. If they don't want to dangle the bag in their hand then they could bring a small carry bag to pop it in.

Agree with Bluebell- blame the birds- rubbish. Blame the dog owners.

When I had dogs (2 Doberman), they were trained to do their 'jobs' in the garden before they were allowed to go out for their walk in the park. Then I could deal with the results at my leisure and didn't need to transport it home.

What makes me really cross is the dog owner(s) near me who use our open-plan front gardens for their dogs business, and don't get me going about cat mess?. I had a very unpleasant time yesterday clearing up both before being able to get on with gardening - something which is supposed to be pleasurable!

I wonder if the sort of people who leave poo bags on trees etc are related to those people who leave:

1. filled nappies by park benches or in town centres
2. needles and drug paraphanalia anywhere
3. can’t be bothered to take the remains of their picnics or drinking bouts to a bin
4. dump their used furniture or rubbish in the street or fields
5. leave fishing line and weights by or in water to strangle and kill birds
6. etc, etc, etc!

Some people are, I’m afraid, pretty senseless BUT how do we get a more responsible attitude about rubbish, dog poo, etc, in the UK, rather than just beating our collective chests?

We have a dog and in our local park in South London, there are probably a dozen dog pooh bins or more, all emptied every day, and I have never seen a dog poop bag hanging in a tree in our park.

However, when I go to see a friend in Surrey, absolutely nowhere to leave poo bags. We never leave poo bags on the ground or on a tree, but sometimes double wrap and put in a section of my rucksack till we get home and the dustbin.

Answers and thoughts please! ?

Yes I’ve seen that too CC. Several people have commented that dogs can be trained to go in a particular place, so why not the owners’ gardens? I guess there will be some people who don’t have gardens, but that’s a different argument!

Thank goodness Florence Flower for a bit of balance. Another addition a friend rants about is horse poo, other that horse nappies can not think of what remedy is there.
No it is ridiculous to festoon places with bags of poo. It is not too difficult to take a bag home, sorry for the legion of people who are not considerate, minus bag it is easy to flush away down the loo. I hope we are all being considerate about what we flush down the loo, poo, pee and paper only. The next door's garden became covered in not only excrement but cotton buds, wet wipes etc. By inconsiderate neighbours back flow. So let us set examples having reached the venerable we are now. No more nasty natures please.

I had a rant about this very same thing on twitter a couple of weeks ago and a friend came back and said she does this if her dog poo’s on the start of their walk and she collects it on her way back! But I have witnesses some being left for days at a time - so some do collect it and some done.

I could handle getting it out of a tree if I had to but people lob the bags over our hedge! I think many if today’s dog walkers really believe in the dog s**t fairy

This is also a problem in our village. I walk our dog daily, and always pick up after him. I wouldn't dream of leaving his mess hanging on trees or elsewhere.
There is an argument that there aren't enough disposal bins along the lanes, which is valid as we often have to carry these bags for quite a while before being able to dispose of them. But hate seeing these bags scattered around.

I wrote to the Local Council and requested a Poo Bin. I also live in the Country but feel that it does not take long to pick up and put in a bin, it's bad for environment and also for anyone walking along don't wish to see poo bags hanging on the local trees to spoil the view of wildlife. How can people be so disgusting. If you have a dog then be a RESPONSIBLE owner pick up and put in bin, or take home in a bag.

On a short walk from my house, approximately 500yards, there are two bins for the disposal of dog faeces. Yesterday I counted 17 bags of excrement within that short distance. I wonder how these disgusting people would react if we non dog owners were to leave bags of human excrement adorning the area. Don’t blame the dogs, it’s the filthy dirty owners I object to.

Just to say things are improving slowly. When my DCs were small they trod in dog poo almost every day as people never cleared it up and indeed we had a small strip of grass between our house and the road so guess where the dogs did their business. I had been taught that allowing dogs to poo on the road was acceptable, as horses had always done but now there are no horse and carts and everyone has more than one dog it seems but at least the owners know what the bags are for.
Here we get them (bags) free from the local leisure centre.

I walk regularly on Forestry commission land and the advice there is to 'stick and flick'. Meaning use a stick to flick the poo into the longer undergrowth. This means no unsightly poo bags hanging or the cost of emptying bins. A very good idea.

Another problem of leaving poo bags hanging in trees and hedges, apart from the disgusting sight of them is that cattle and horses are attracted to the smell of cereal in the poo and if they eat them they often end up having to be put down due to their intestines being blocked up with plastic!
So, no excuses about picking them up later, I dont buy that story anyway. Just take the stuff with you!

Last year we used to regularly find that someone had decorated the bus shelter with dog poo. They must have done it at night, and presumably were throwing the bags at the shelter until they split and then rubbed it all over the windows and seats. There were also bags in top of the shelter and hanging the trees. It was disgusting, and eventually the bin was moved further away from the bus shelter to try to stop it happening. Seems to have worked as there hasn't been another incident this year. Fingers crossed! Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it, will probably find it festooned tomorrow.