Quite a few councils in England and Wales have done this over the past few years - it's supposed to draw residents' attention to the problem and hopefully shame dog owners who allow their pets to foul local streets without picking up after them.

(Strange choice of username, BTW! )

It surely gets stranger - if the council can afford to pay someone to patrol the footpaths armed with a aerosol, could they not ask the fella to pick up the poo, instead of painting it? I'm not sure shaming people works. Unless they're named in the pub.

I agree that the shaming idea isn't likely to work. It might even have the opposite effect!

ojeezus - If you live near me my DH has used three tins of spray paint (blue, orange and yellow) to mark all offending turds on the river path and the bridleway on our land. He has also stuck small notices on hazel sticks by each pile telling lazy dog owners to clear up after their dog. There are enormous piles of C* so it must be larger dogs making the mess.

Reading the comments, it seems that efficient dog wardens are the answer. Dogs should be supervised in public parks ,and the owners should be supervised as well. And fined when caught.

Dog wardens ??. So this means that those of us without dogs have to contribute towards clearing up after filthy dog owners, gee thanks.

chocolatepudding - I do hope he's using ecologically sound paint spray. One wouldn't want to risk poisoning birds and wild animals with something toxic.

DH uses a temporary spray paint - used for marking out building sites and temporary roadworks so it only lasts about a week. We both care about the wildlife too.

I walk with my grandchildren to take them to school and back - we have to dodge the dog poo on both the pavement and the right of way we use. I have had to scrape my grandchildren's shoes several times to clean the dog poo off when they have accidently trodden in it and it makes me feel sick, the smell is usually dreadful.

I really don't understand what the issue is with cleaning up after your own dog. Why have one if you are not prepared to deal with the poo!

I too wonder about the people who bag the poo and then throw the bag into trees and bushes - who do they think is going to clear it up?

Please don't think that I dislike dogs over the years I have had several dogs including a Beagle and two Border Cross Terriers at the same time. We always scooped the poop and disposed of it properly.

I live in a town house complex where we pay monthly fees to maintain the pathways we jointly own , gardens , lawns etc We are surrounded by high rises and are having to pay maintenance people to clean up dog dirt left everywhere. Also the bin beside our mailboxes , which is intended for junk mail, is being used for dog dirt bags- which means that the paper contents cannot be recycled. Yet others simply drop the bag in the vicinity of this bin-or simply do not pick up at all.There are even people who drive up to the gates ,park and block the exit/entrance ,open their car doors and allow their dogs to go out on their own to use the "facilities' then return to the car when done.

Why can't dog owners drag their crap machines onto the gutter to defecate. I can't understand why the mess is always in the middle of the foot path.

I knew someone who trained their dog to wee over a drain in the gutter, it can't be that hard to do.

My parents trained their lab to pee over a drain in the back yard. And this was the dog that bust a gut to get home to poo in her own garden.

I am glad you have enlightened me about the reason for dog poo being hung in trees!! I have puzzled this for years and not being a dog owner I had no idea why some areas have trees littered with plastic bags full of poo. As some have been there for months until the bags rot away and I must admit some are very high up and I have not seen any 10' people walking their dogs! so I assumed folks got fed up of carrying them and just threw them up a tree out of the way (a bit of an extreme and baffling hobby..but....) so it would seem a bit more of a valid explanation that they intend to collect it on the way back..except of course those that go back another way...
Not enough people are fined for dogs fouling, why would they ever assume anyone would love to step in or have it attach to their pram wheels?? We stopped humans depositing their own waste in the street years ago, why should dogs be any different? they are not living wild in their natural habitat they are living as pets in populated areas so the owners should be responsible for all aspects of the pets behaviour.

And No I do not dislike dogs its the owners who act irresponsible I DON'T LIKE

Some poo-tossers maintain that the bags they use are biodegradable and so, in time, the said deposit will return to the ground from which it came. If it was true then surely it would be an alternative mechanism for disposal rather than swinging a full bag when meeting 'n' greeting neighbours, putting in the bin and then adding to landfill?

I live in a small village , and must say dog poo is a big problem, I have owned dogs for the last twenty years, my first dog would only poo in her own garden, the other two ( all have been big boxer dogs) would rarely poo when out on walks, but it is no problem to me.... to pick up my own dogs poo and dispose of it when I get home. However I could not pick up after another dog... yuck. We have a small jitty which I walk up daily to visit the local shops, some bright spark has put a sign up (similiar to a car registration plaque ....... bright yellow background with DOG SH++ ALLEY printed on it..... and the dog poos have been sprayed in a bright yellow paint.... silly I know....but I counted 30 dog poos one day. Have you noticed cats seem to poo on the lawns without digging holes... I dont know which is worst... yesterday a lovely sunny day... decided to do some weeding... yuck.... there was cat poo in every trowel ful of soil... now that did make me heave !!!!!!!!!

Where we lived previously we had a bird poo problem. A series of telephone wires radiating out from a central pole that was the meeting place for the local starling population, and a parallel line of electric cables where other species preferred to gather.

Underneath each of these great dollops of bird poo, elderberry coloured in the autumn. I wrote to the RSPB and the council about it several times but they said it wasn't their responsibility to pick it up or issue birds with nappies.

What did we pay our rates for I wondered?

Here the problem is the fields are littered with sheep poo and cow dung. The parks with rabbit droppings and fox scat (and that really pongs). And the town hall is white with pigeon droppings.

We're drowning in shit the stuff

Anya, was that post serious?

www.fixmystreet.com is the website to report it and anything else that might be blighting your community, like flytipping, loose paving, vandalism, etc.

Serious Ana? Every word of it was true.

But people only moan about dog poo and cat poo.

I think that's discrimination. I'm only looking at the bigger picture.

Oh, I don't doubt that it's all true.

What I was questioning was whether you were really complaining about fields having sheep droppings and cowpats on them, as well as wondering what you expected the council/RSPB to do about the congregating birds!

I thought maybe it was tongue-in-cheek, but perhaps not...
Dog poo is one thing, but wildlife droppings are just a fact of life, especially if you live in the countryside.

A seagull (probably an erroneously named black-.headed gull in case Jen is interested) pooed on my GS from a great height only last week. I tried to tell him that was supposed to be good luck but he wasn't impressed.

Red Rum once pooed on the road outside my house when we lived in Southport. Now that was impressive, so I rushed out with a shovel and scooped it up, hot and steaming, for my roses honest!