To the woman in a brown coat and black trousers walking two dogs on Underhill at 2.15pm today

[fortified]

One larger dog - one of those lupine grey ones with black along its back - and a smaller ?brown one.

Did you really have to dump the plastic bag full of dog poo in the gutter over a drain grate?

You glanced around to see if anyone was looking before you dropped it. I was, actually.

I mean, nobody really wants to carry a bag of warm dog poo around but, y'know, it's part of the deal with owning a dog, right?

And there was a poo bin just a matter of a few metres further in the direction you were going, on the corner of Belvoir Road.

At least if you hadn't bagged the poo, it would've washed away eventually, but instead you left a little gift for the road sweeper.

Lazy and revolting.

[Nigello]

You glanced around to see if anyone was looking before you dropped it. I was, actually.

So why not say something? Sheesh. What is the point of trying to locate and shame a complete stranger on a website that is used by thousands of people? Do the right thing - pull the slatternly dog owner up over her bad behaviour at the time, but don't come on here and whine impotently about it.

[fortified]

I would've done but I wasn't in the street at the time.

But sure, any problem here lies squarely with me.

[dimples]

That is really lazy and unfair . I hope it will shame the person into walking those few steps to bin it if they read this on here !

[Frankito]

Some people don't like the direct approach, that's a personal choice..

The root issue here, as you have clearly detailed is about lazy, irresponsible behaviour! Hopefully said person reads this and thinks twice next time.

[tiddles]

talk about shooting the messenger!!

actually, sometimes confronting the perpetrator can end in right old mess. I had a polite and I thought friendly word with someone (who I thought was nice neighbour ) about a howling and distressed dog once, and they threatened to shove my teeth down my throat.

So I quite understand someone not wanting the face to face thing. But perhaps, if the 'guilty party' reads the edf they might recognise themselves. and think twice about doing it again.

please don't attack the people who report such antisocial behaviour

[Louisa]

I agree with Nigello. Nothing worse than a curtain twitcher who snoops on people and doesn't confront them there and then, maybe the person would own up and learn from their mistake? Instead you critisise them on a forum they may never read and the tut tut brigade join in because they too don't have the gumption to confront said person. Yawn. Next please...

Louisa.

[fortified]

Oh I like a direct approach, believe me, but disappointingly I was otherwise engaged.

And it was hardly curtain twitching or snooping; my eyes just happened to be pointing her way.

[Frankito]

It was probably the Tut-tut Queen herself - Louisa: BUSTED....!!! :0)

[drewd]

Dog poo is a huge problem in that area. I live on Overhill Rd and one side of the street has been gradually turning into somebody's dog's bathroom in recent months. Somebody new must have acquired a dog - somebody not responsible enough to have one. I have written to one of my councillors about the poo problem. He says he is aware of the problem and it is being looked into by the council. Not exactly sure what that means but what is frustrating is that cleaning up the mess is an easier option than trying to change behaviour and stop it happening at all.

So although challenging someone who you see not cleaning up after their dog may be the right thing to do, it doesn't necessarily feel like the safest. My experience of challenging people who drop litter is that 90% of the time you are told to F off or get some other defensive reaction that makes you wish you hadn't. You walk away feeling like the busy body. With a selfish dog owner there's also a good chance that they are a bad dog owner and have reared their dog to be aggressive. Having said that, with the woman that Fortified saw it sounds like she was conscientious enough to pick up the poop. Just too lazy to do the right thing once she had bagged it.

[Louisa]

The woman bagged it, and to be fair, once it's bagged it is no longer a danger to young kids or anyone else for that matter so well done for bagging it at least. I agree she should have put it in a bin, maybe she had been carrying it for a while and didn't know/forgot about a nearby bin? If she was smart enough to bag it then she my have good reason on this occasion for not binning it for whatever reason. That's why confronting in a pleasant, polite manner would have worked better for this example than naming and shaming on a public forum. I'm sure if directed towards a "nearby bin" she would have obliged. Far easier to bleet about a gripe on a forum than face to face isn't it?

Louisa.

[Monkey]

If you dish it out, you have to be able to take it.

And this includes the person who gets their dog to shit on Dunstans road including on my drive this morning.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Recently I found a runny one in the middle of my front doormat so someone actually allowed their pet to go into someone else's porch. That was fun.

I generally say something if I see a dog owner turning a blind eye, but agree it can be intimidating and some reinforcement in the forum might make a few people think twice.

[Herne Hill Guest]

Runny ones are usually fox poo. Poor diet.

Nice.

[Robert Poste's Child]

This one was too small and light for fox. Didn't smell like fox poo either. I'm giving dark looks to the terrier a few doors up.

[sheilarose]

The real crime is wearing a brown coast with black trousers. Ew.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Louisa, you really do enjoy being contrary for the sake of it. You can't justify someone dumping a bag of sh*t in the street. The fact that it's bagged hardly makes it OK.

The OP said that they would have confronted the individual but didn't have the opportunity to intervene. It's not always possible.

[lameduck]

I was sitting in outside my place couple of weeks ago in the car,

whilst my husband went indoors to collect something.

A man passed with a small dog who immediatley stooped.

Man stopped went in his pockets withdrew something

I thought maybe a bag, After a while realised he was texting

he then put phone away looked back at his dogs doings

then picked a stick up and flicked it under my back gate.

I obviously went after him. He said its only a little bit

He did eventually pick it up in a bag

I must admit I can see the funny side the silly bugger must have seen me

as the engine was running and we had moved the car out of the gutter somewhat.

[????]

Come on Louisa nails it. Whilst mothers pushing their children around in buagaboos etc with an air of Clapham about them deserve our scorn, people dumping bags of sh1t on the streets are much maligned and missunderstood....

[Bluerevolution]

There seems to be a bit of a quandry re the law here, it seems that it is (or was) perfectly legal to allow a dog to do it's business in drainage channel of a roadway (gutter)-assumption rain or road sweepers would clean it up.

But to bag it and then place it in the gutter seems counter productive, why not just pop it in a bin ? Doesn't have to be a dog poop specified, just in a general rubbish bin.

I've seen dog poop bags left in gutters many a time, in fact 1 this morning that had obviously been squished by a vehicle tyre

[Mustard]

Good point. It used to be illegal for a dog to 'foul the footway' is that still the case? Or does fouling the street count as well.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Does the letter of the law really matter? I mean even if it is legal to drop a bag of sh*t in road (I have no idea), would anyone really contend that it's OK to do it?

[Earl Aelfheah]

...except for Louisa of course.

[Mustard]

I wasn't referring to the bagged part, but to the defecating part. Lots of dogs used to be trained to do their business off the kerb in the gutter, and street sweepers would sweep it up like BR said. So maybe elderly people still let their dogs do that.

[JoeGoodwin]

I think it is the reasonable responsibility of every dog owner to clear up after their pet's mess whether they find it difficult or not. I get incredibly angry if I accidentally walk in the stuff.

You should definitely approach the owner if you catch them doing it, hopefully shaming them into changing their ways. I agree that you don't know how that person might react but you would be able to tell from their reaction whether it could turn serious/physical and then exit the scene if necessary.