Stooping and scooping a good start, but what to do with the package?

There’s no place like home, when it comes to the knotted bundle of joy that signifies the love between a dog and its master.

The vast majority of dog owners are conscientious about picking up after their pooch, no matter how unpleasant the exercise, judging by all those bags tied to leashes and sour faces made by people as they scrape up the stuff.

In exchange for the unwavering affection of Fido, the owner’s part of the bargain is to harvest its, um, droppings and dispose of them, so that others won’t track it into their homes on their shoes.

It is very high on the list of reasons why I don’t have a dog.

But the business isn’t finished when the gift is wrapped. The bearer of the package must deposit it somewhere, and usually makes a bee line for the nearest trash receptacle.

That may be the handiest solution, but it is not the best.

Twice in the past week we have come across signs asking dog owners to find another place to make the deposit – one taped to a trash can outside the main doors to the arena at De la Salle College and another on the door of a retail business.

The sign at the arena entrance, across from a sprawling lawn at the school where local residents walk their dogs, says the bundles should go somewhere else because of the horrible stench.

A former city parks manager once told me that during a municipal employees strike, he ended up emptying garbage cans in parks at the height of summer, which gave him a new appreciation for the workers who do it every day.

The smell of dog doo was so overpowering that it seeped into his clothes, hair and skin, he said. The clothes had to be thrown out and no matter how hard he scrubbed in the shower, he couldn’t escape the smell.

Is it appropriate that the public is burdened with the vile stench of a few people’s dogs? Instead of chucking the stuff into the nearest receptacle, where it will cook in the heat until the can is emptied, shouldn’t a socially responsible owner take it home and live with it until it is put out to the curb with their trash?

It may be an unpopular proposition with dog people, but their crap should not be our problem.

             

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