I’m working on our neighborhood newsletter — the final one for 2022. At the annual meeting and quarterly board meeting, residents voiced their concerns. Can you guess what the number one issue was?
Dog poop.
Seriously, I walk our neighborhood streets every morning. There is more dog poop on the streets and sidewalks than when we moved here in 2020. One morning there was dog poop on our driveway.
It’s weird. Who doesn’t pick up after their pets? This is a nice neighborhood and people take care of their yards and homes. Neighbors are retired professionals, successful trades people with empty nests or younger working families with kids and dogs.
A neighbor, who has a well-behaved labradoodle who is being trained as a therapy dog, asked me to put something in the newsletter about dog poop. She told me that one of her friends in a nearby neighborhood addressed this by DNA testing every dog — and then testing poop. The guilty were slapped with a $500 fine.
DNA testing? The neighbor thought that was over the top, but said other ideas were having bags at the park and putting up cameras — plus fines.
The neighborhood isn’t big on cameras. It seems too Orweillian.
We do have lots of wildlife here. I looked up javelina and coyote poop. I read it looks similar to mid-sized dogs. Maybe it’s not bad dog owners but wild animals?
Walking through the neighborhood, we stop and pet dogs who are out with their owners. Both the dogs and the neighbors don’t seem like the type to leave pet droppings around.
On a brighter note, thank goodness our number one issue isn’t crime or homeless!
What suggestions do you have for our task force tackling dog poop?
I have no idea how to solve the problem but this always baffles me too. Having two big dogs myself I know it takes very little effort to pick it up. Not doing so suggests either utter laziness or complete lack of respect, or both. Sad, indeed.
It is laziness or lack of respect. We lived across the street from a hotel and guests would bring their dogs to our grass and some would not clean up!
Disgraceful, no other word for it. Hope you get it sorted in your area! 😀
👍🏼
This must be frustrating for you all
There are much bigger things in life to worry about. But you wonder who would do this?
I know, and I don’t like unsolved mysteries
I look at my neighbors with dogs and wonder, “is it you?”
😂
It seems odd for sure, especially given the neighborhood you live in and where the poop seems to be showing up overnight. It seems if you all really want to know who or what it is then a few strategically placed cameras have to come into the equation. If not, everyone is just going to keep complaining but have no answers.
It’s pretty hard to catch someone in the act! You’re probably right about the cameras, but most people are against them.
We have the same problem. My conclusion? You cannot fix stupid OR inconsiderate.
Why would anyone do this? I guess you answered that!
And you don’t have crime or homelessness as the number 1 issue, which is good. Crime seems to follow opportunity but sometimes people do stupid things out of boredom, at least in Florida. Gun fights and fist fighting over small things. I once had a man come out to watch me take away the poo in a pooper scooper. I think his issue was not with me but with his business as he later put his home up for sale. He talked to me about the poo but I had the feeling there were other issues at heart. We don’t have sidewalks on our side, so if someone does walk on this side..it is suspicious at times.
We are thirty minutes from town, so there are very few instances of burglaries, guns or fist fights. I have a neighbor who had a stranger pounding on their door in the middle of the night. They called the police and he ran away. I’m sure there were other issues going on with your former neighbor.
Yes, he watched me pick up the pooper scooper and the poo. Only time it ever happened like that.
Weird.
I don’t understand why dog owners don’t pick up after their pets either. I have a couple of times run out of bags and forgotten to reload the holder but I always bring a bag of treats with me too and I’ve emptied the treats in my pocket and used that bag to pick up the poop. I am fortunate that our Benny’s poops are solid so they are easy to scoop up. As to your neighborhood, maybe put more signs up and/or bag holders around a few more places. I know a few of our neighbors have a sign on their yard requesting no dogs so I make sure to steer Benny away from those houses.
At my old house we had two bag dispensers at the park. They’d be empty overnight. People took dozens of bags! I don’t think they’d do that here. We had a strip of lawn outside our wall at our old house and people would bring their dogs to use our grass. I posted signs and one morning, the signs were all broken!
Rude
We had a hotel across the street so the hotel guests didn’t care. But we also had two neighbors who walked their dogs to our lawn every morning!
The ones I don’t get are the ones who bag it and then leave the bag in a yard or on the sidewalk.
Yes. That drives me crazy! I always wonder if they’re on a walk and will come back for it.
Ha! DNA testing! Sounds expensive. I’d put that possibility in your newsletter as a last resort solution. Hopefully that would get people’s attention to the problem. Good luck!
Good idea. Also that HOA does will have to increase for the first time in 15 years due to the DNA testing or installing cameras.
Sorry, but I’d be checking security footage. It’s the only way to stop people…you have to shame them
The problem is it’s all over the neighborhood on random streets. We’d need cameras everywhere.
None of your neighbors have those ring doorbells? Or wildlife cam?
I’m not sure. If we had a ring doorbell we couldn’t see to the street or sidewalk.
I know my sisters can see like ten feet out, past her front porch, but I’m not sure what kind of system she has
We have too many plants and cactus blocking the view.
Ahhhh
😊
This is awful. I’m sorry. We always bag our dog’s poop and dispose of it in the park’s trash can.
That’s what you’d think everyone would do.
That is surprising. I assume people are walking their pets on leash and wouldn’t miss the event. At the local off-leash dog park, it is possible to not see your dog doing it. I’d suggest some doggy bag-trash can stations. I’ve seen those a number of places and people will use them. If there is one particular place that is a special problem, maybe put up a temporary camo-cam and see if you can determine the culprit.
They are walking their dogs on leash. Thank you for the suggestions.
I once worked where things were suddenly going missing. The security team announced ‘random bag checks’ at the back door. To my knowledge, not check was ever done, as the team was short-handed and busy with other things, but the theft stopped. I think just the threat of getting caught, embarrassed, and probably fired, was enough to deter the behavior. Maybe you could put something loosely worded in the newsletter to suggest cameras are being checked. You know you there are no traffic cams in your neighborhood and doorbell cams can’t see anything, but do the offenders know that? Also, if anything does happen to come up on camera, it would be actionable.
You had published the warning. Just an idea…
Good idea. We are thinking about heavy fines too.