In this morning's Guardian, a reader advice asked quite reasonably why dog-owners are encouraged to bag up their dogs' mess in plastic containers which will then go to landfill. Why, they wanted to know, can the doggy-do not just be tossed somewhere discreet, to de-compose as nature intended?
Related: Know your dog's carbon pawprint | Be a greener dog owner with the Dogs Trust
The answer is the sheer number of dogs now inhabiting towns and cities. With 7.3 million canines in the UK, around 900 tonnes of dog poo a day is deposited on the ground and there's no way we'd tolerate such a large amount of decomposing mess in and around our parks. And, of course, the main problems we have at present are not the fault of the dogs, but their owners. Even with the threat of hefty fines, many don't bother to take soiled bags away with them, opting to ditch them in public instead. And it's this careless attitude that has led some commentators to conclude that owning a dog is worse for the planet than driving a 4x4...
In this article, John Whitehead of Environmental Economics claims that in his area, 'at least 10 per cent' of dog owners do not clear up after their pets, and aside from the unpleasant consequences of their laziness, they are contributing to a much bigger problem.
Whitehead goes on to say that he is concerned about all the resources that go into dog food production, before rather alarmingly proposing "extermination of pet dogs". Not a position I can imagine many pet-loving Brits taking too kindly to - but in seriousness, how 'green' can a dog owner really be in the light of the above?
Given how much household waste and leftovers they happily eat, I think that probably counts in their favour, not to mention the health benefits of walking a dog every day.
Of course you could convincingly argue that having children is ridiculously bad for the environment - far worse than dogs!
But Duncan...your children could find a solution to global warming. Or a cure for cancer. I can't see anyone's pet dog doing that!
Very reasonable question asked by that reader.
It makes sense on all counts.
First of all Councils wouldn't have to pay out for
special dog waste containers.Instead of throwing the dog mess into a doggie bin,it would do much more good as fertiliser if thrown under shrubs(without the plastic it was collected in of course).
Also by doing that you could also have the added bonus of protecting the shrubs from youth vandalism.
Who's going to want to get their shoes covered in dog mess? :)