Arreton Traveller Ramblings: Saturday 22nd February 2014 - Dog Poo

Arreton Traveller Ramblings: Saturday 22^nd February 2014

Just back from walking our rescue dog Pippa around Arreton, lovely day, Sun out and all’s well with world then,” squelch” and I am standing in Dog Excrement and my mood changes, why-o-why don’t other dog owners do the simple thing of bagging and picking up their pets waste.

Pippa relaxting while out on walk today

I have noticed a large increase of dogs waste material left on the ground from when I last went dog walking with our lovely Border collie “Jess”, the “Old Grey Lady” having two years new lease of life here in Arreton when we moved here, before she sadly after 14 wonderful years with us had to be put down. She was another Rescue dog. Again like Pippa she was around a year old when the family saved her. She had been missed treated, locked in cupboard in a bag, and burnt with an iron, which she never forgot! When my sister Annette took out the ironing board, she was off upstairs and she would hide by the bed.

Jesse - Old Gray Lady

But I digress; it was a wait of over a year before another dog entered our life. Pippa came from Kim at Brackens Dog Rescue, here on the Isle of Wight. So I started to go out again dog walking, it has shocked me how many “piles of crap” are around our village. Yesterday the paths and roads were swept, but yet again today more “s—t” on pavement. Do these people not understand that dog ownership comes with regulations that require you to clear up after your pets mess!

You would think that in this day and age that pet owners know the dangers of not clearing up after their dog. The footpath I walk along to give Pippa a good exercise runs right outside the village St George’s Primary School, mess on footwear being taken into the classroom, the danger of infection (can cause blindness).You would think that alone would make owners pick up after their pets waste.

Even in the footpaths across fields there are dog faeces everywhere to be trodden in or having your pet eat it, etc. An item on “Adams Farm” in BBC’s CountryFile television programme linked an infection that Cows catch from Dog Excrement that make them unable to become pregnant, so the old saying “it’s OK is in a field” will not do. Letting your dog of its lead does not relieve the dog walker of the reasonability of clearing up after the pet. So when a dog comes into view and not on a lead, not the owner insight, how do they know if the dog has not “passed motion” or where it “lay’s” while out of there sight is beyond me.

Another walk takes me the edge of the village and onto Cycle Track 23 route at Horringford, well it “beggar’s belief” that not 50 yards from a dog waste bin someone has had to spray onto the tarmac path “This is not a Dogs Loo”, only to fine more excrement laying there! What a wonderful advert for a tourist island! The Parish Council is now planning to spend £400 to purchase Dog waste bins for the village and a further £300 per year to empty them! Which I am sure they have better use for the money.

So I plead to dog owners in Arreton and surrounding countryside to please make sure you have “doggy bags” with you and pick up after your pet and keep the this island safe for our children and clean for not only the locals, but also to encourage tourists back to the IOW.

Sign from Belgium trip.