City Dogs & Their Wastes
Sunday, March 8th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
The increasing amount of dog litter in the city streets is causing problems in many cities. With the huge concentration of dogs in metropolitan areas, whether as household pets or guard dogs, the city is experiencing a comparable increase in waste materials dotting the already run-down urban landscape.
Concern about environmental pollution has also increased. Many citizens and some media reporters have made a sensation over dog litter, claiming that every disease from the common cold to bubonic plague comes directly from dog litter. Some people have gone overboard by attempting to agitate parents with such slogans as “children before dogs”.
To be quite frank, dog litter does not present real medical concern to the average resident of a large city. The more serious health hazard is, of course, to other dogs and not to humans. Diseases such as hepatitis and distemper are passed from infected dogs to healthy ones through saliva and urine, while internal parasites are transmitted through the stool of infected dogs.
However, for a human to contract any disease from dogs would require that he walk the street barefooted or physically ingest dog waste or fleas which is, of course, highly unlikely. The argument of the “children before dogs” group is that children will unwittingly eat dog fleas and stool. We assume that parents would not let their young children to play unattended on public streets, parks and pavements; and when they are old enough to play unattended, they have been taught the basics of cleanliness and hygiene.
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More likely to be of significant danger to human health is contamination of food by roaches, rats, and the common housefly, none of which seems to be exciting enough for these same people who are so concerned with dog litter.
But regardless of who’s judging who, most people agree that dog litter does present an awful smell and unsightly pollution of our environment in an area that can hardly afford it. Every dog owner is responsible for the mess created by his dog. Whether it is a Great Dane or a Chihuahua, each dog does his share in contaminating natural resources and infuriating pedestrians.
It is puzzling that some dog owners with a backyard have no difficulty keeping it clean of dog waste; but these same owners will walk their dog allow her to litter a public street.
Animal lovers have a sensitivity to nature and animals that is not known to people who have never loved a pet. We need to be considerate of our neighbors as well as our pets. The rights of other people cannot be ignored. As responsible owners we have no right to expect others to clean up after our dogs.
If we all clean up after our pets, we will be contributing to a substantially cleaner, more pleasant environment. It is up to us to preserve decent cities to our pets as well as for ourselves and our neighbors.
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