a couple of newspaper beauties
a couple of stories of the local sort have made me chuckle in the past few days - one even made fark.com (from brockville! - that's crazy!).
here's the recorder and time's story in its entirety...
i'll post snippets of the whig story next.
The scoop on dog poop
By DEREK ABMA
Staff Writer
By now, most people know that dog walkers are supposed to pick up any fecal matter excreted by their canine friends while they're out and about.
What is less clear for people is whether an offence has happened if a dog poops on someone's property but is scooped up afterward.
People's dogs are often on long leashes and drawn to grassy areas for their bodily functions. But property owners don't always appreciate such occurrences, even if the dog walker is a faithful poop scooper.
Jannette Amini, administrative co-ordinator for the City of Brockville clerk's office, said the animal control bylaw doesn't address this issue.
She said the bylaw requires dog walkers to clean up after their pets, and it prevents them from being on private property without permission if unleashed.
But it doesn't say anything to prevent a leashed dog from walking on someone's lawn or defecating there if the poop's subsequently scooped.
"Trespassing on private property, that's more of a police issue than ours," Amini said. "But the animal-control bylaw does not address that."
Constable Garry Dunklin of the Brockville police, when asked whether a leashed dog walking on someone's property could be construed as trespassing, "Nah. I wouldn't think so."
When asked if police would respond to a complaint of a dog defecating on someone's property, even if the dog's caretaker cleaned it up, Dunklin said, "That's just an all-around stupid question."
Paula Thomson, chairman of the Thousand Islands Kennel and Obedience (TIKO) Club's annual dog show, said her organization has no official stance on the issue. However, she said she has "strong feelings" about it personally.
"I don't believe that any animal, whether you pick up or not, should be allowed to relieve itself on somebody else's property," she said.
She said dogs can be trained to go to the bathroom off curbs, and be trained to hold their urges until reaching a designated area like a dog park.
Some dog owners, however, say it is not possible to control the situation at all times. Elizabeth Hampton, who owns a female pug named Jazz Blue, said she tries to have the dog do all its defecating at the park. But it doesn't always work out that way.
"When she has to go, she has to go, and it has to be there," Hampton said.
Ruth Kovacs, owner of a Shih Tzu named Rosie, agreed that sometimes it's impossible to control when a dog goes to the bathroom. She recalled a time when she stopped along County Road 2, west of Prescott, to let Rosie out of the car to go about her business.
While Rosie was defecating on the edge of someone's front lawn, the property owner came forward and demanded Kovacs take her dog away. She complied, but there were consequences, as Rosie was not finished yet.
"I got the poop all over me," Kovacs said.
Her friend, Marcel Gauvreau, said his yard in Lyn is constantly littered with dog feces. If people cleaned up after their dogs, he said he wouldn't care if these pups used his property for washroom breaks.
Gauvreau said property owners concerned about health risks left behind after poop is scooped are nitpicking.
"What about the geese and ducks around here in the park?" he said while sitting in Hardy Park. "Why single out dogs?"
Joan Mays, supervisor of health protection for the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark Heath Unit, said the agency "strongly supports people that poop and scoop."
She said scooping feces will get rid of most of the bacterial and parasitic risks it poses.
However, she acknowledged that even after scooping, there is the possibility of contamination being left behind, though she said the sun's ultraviolet rays and heat help destroy bacteria.
Mays said risk mitigation should happen whenever children play in any area where there are possible traces of animal waste.
This should include ensuring children are wearing shoes, prevent them as much as possible from putting anything found outside in their mouths, and keeping their own hands away from their mouths until after they've washed up.
"Most of the parasitic diseases that you would get from animal feces go from the fecal-oral route," she said. "So it's really the hands that are playing in the dirt and on the grass will then be put into the mouth."
Mays said the health unit has no specific stance on whether it's OK for people to let their dogs use people's lawns as a toilet and then clean up the visible mess.
She said, as a dog owner, she tries to steer her dog away from soiling other people's property, but it's not always possible.
# Published in Section b, page 7 in the Thursday, July 20, 2006 edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times.
# Posted 4:31:23 PM Thursday, July 20, 2006.
here's the recorder and time's story in its entirety...
i'll post snippets of the whig story next.
The scoop on dog poop
By DEREK ABMA
Staff Writer
By now, most people know that dog walkers are supposed to pick up any fecal matter excreted by their canine friends while they're out and about.
What is less clear for people is whether an offence has happened if a dog poops on someone's property but is scooped up afterward.
People's dogs are often on long leashes and drawn to grassy areas for their bodily functions. But property owners don't always appreciate such occurrences, even if the dog walker is a faithful poop scooper.
Jannette Amini, administrative co-ordinator for the City of Brockville clerk's office, said the animal control bylaw doesn't address this issue.
She said the bylaw requires dog walkers to clean up after their pets, and it prevents them from being on private property without permission if unleashed.
But it doesn't say anything to prevent a leashed dog from walking on someone's lawn or defecating there if the poop's subsequently scooped.
"Trespassing on private property, that's more of a police issue than ours," Amini said. "But the animal-control bylaw does not address that."
Constable Garry Dunklin of the Brockville police, when asked whether a leashed dog walking on someone's property could be construed as trespassing, "Nah. I wouldn't think so."
When asked if police would respond to a complaint of a dog defecating on someone's property, even if the dog's caretaker cleaned it up, Dunklin said, "That's just an all-around stupid question."
Paula Thomson, chairman of the Thousand Islands Kennel and Obedience (TIKO) Club's annual dog show, said her organization has no official stance on the issue. However, she said she has "strong feelings" about it personally.
"I don't believe that any animal, whether you pick up or not, should be allowed to relieve itself on somebody else's property," she said.
She said dogs can be trained to go to the bathroom off curbs, and be trained to hold their urges until reaching a designated area like a dog park.
Some dog owners, however, say it is not possible to control the situation at all times. Elizabeth Hampton, who owns a female pug named Jazz Blue, said she tries to have the dog do all its defecating at the park. But it doesn't always work out that way.
"When she has to go, she has to go, and it has to be there," Hampton said.
Ruth Kovacs, owner of a Shih Tzu named Rosie, agreed that sometimes it's impossible to control when a dog goes to the bathroom. She recalled a time when she stopped along County Road 2, west of Prescott, to let Rosie out of the car to go about her business.
While Rosie was defecating on the edge of someone's front lawn, the property owner came forward and demanded Kovacs take her dog away. She complied, but there were consequences, as Rosie was not finished yet.
"I got the poop all over me," Kovacs said.
Her friend, Marcel Gauvreau, said his yard in Lyn is constantly littered with dog feces. If people cleaned up after their dogs, he said he wouldn't care if these pups used his property for washroom breaks.
Gauvreau said property owners concerned about health risks left behind after poop is scooped are nitpicking.
"What about the geese and ducks around here in the park?" he said while sitting in Hardy Park. "Why single out dogs?"
Joan Mays, supervisor of health protection for the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark Heath Unit, said the agency "strongly supports people that poop and scoop."
She said scooping feces will get rid of most of the bacterial and parasitic risks it poses.
However, she acknowledged that even after scooping, there is the possibility of contamination being left behind, though she said the sun's ultraviolet rays and heat help destroy bacteria.
Mays said risk mitigation should happen whenever children play in any area where there are possible traces of animal waste.
This should include ensuring children are wearing shoes, prevent them as much as possible from putting anything found outside in their mouths, and keeping their own hands away from their mouths until after they've washed up.
"Most of the parasitic diseases that you would get from animal feces go from the fecal-oral route," she said. "So it's really the hands that are playing in the dirt and on the grass will then be put into the mouth."
Mays said the health unit has no specific stance on whether it's OK for people to let their dogs use people's lawns as a toilet and then clean up the visible mess.
She said, as a dog owner, she tries to steer her dog away from soiling other people's property, but it's not always possible.
# Published in Section b, page 7 in the Thursday, July 20, 2006 edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times.
# Posted 4:31:23 PM Thursday, July 20, 2006.
posted by Ottawan Dave | 3:32 p.m.
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