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My Pet Hate ...

I really, really hate seeing a tirade in a local newsletter from a rabid dog hater about the prevalence of dog mess. Most dog owners are responsible and pick up after their animals. However in the last couple of months fouling has become a real problem in Oxhill.

When walking with a fellow traveller along Main Street the other day I asked her why she was walking in the road. “The pavement is covered in dog shit,” she replied. “I prefer to take my chances in the road.”

You may, or may not, know that I am a compulsive picker-up of litter and take the opportunity when walking my dog Jesse to pick up that largely, I suspect, thrown out of van windows by persons delivering packages purchased on-line by village residents or otherwise speeding through our rural idyll.  Just today I filled yet another carrier bag with discarded beer cans and bottles, cigarette packets, fast food packaging, and general human detritus – perhaps some fifty items in a mile walk ‘around the block’ and only a week since the last daylight exercise.

I am relatively happy to keep our streets, lanes and byways free of unsightly litter dropped by the great unwashed, but I do object to being faced with the task of picking up a fellow villager’s dog’s excrement – something that I have done on half a dozen occasions this week alone.

The main mess problem is in Main Street, bordered on both sides by houses and with pavement, as opposed to a grass verge, for most of its length. Dogs off the lead are invariably trained enough to ‘go’ on command or at a time and place well known to the owner who will be prepared for such an eventuality. The owner of a dog on a lead cannot but be aware that his / her animal is defecating and has no excuse for not picking up what is unsightly, a potential health hazard and socially unacceptable – be it in town or country, on the pavement, verge or recreation area. Indeed I would go as far as to say that local farmers grazing their livestock object strongly to the health of those animals being put at risk by exposure to dog faeces left on their land. In today’s supposedly educated western society it should the norm for dog owners to carry poo bags, clear up after their pets, wherever, and put the offending item in the next litter bin or take it home for disposal.

Some thirty dog owners in the village will throw up their hands and say “Not me, Douglas. I always clear up after my dog”, but someone isn’t and needs to be told that their, not their dog’s, behaviour is unacceptable.  Please, everyone in the village, keep your eyes open and make my, your, our feelings known should you see the miscreant. Follow the Country Code and leave nothing behind save your footprints – hopefully in the future free of excrement.

This site is maintained by villagers of Oxhill for the benefit of the community and those interested in the history, news and activities that make the village such a pleasant place to live.

Last modified: April 19, 2016