Tidy Towns Dog Poo awareness month

This is not a witch hunt, it is not to identify those that do not pick up after their dog poops on the street, footpath, football pitch, playground, or school ground, writes Ray Kelly of Kilcullen Community Action. It is to raise awareness to those who may think it is OK not clean up after their dog.

OK, it is illegal, it is against the law, you can be fined heavily for not doing it. But, let’s be honest, it is just not nice to leave your dog’s poo in a place where a person can walk in it, where a buggy can roll over it, where a kid can pick it up, where some elderly person could slip on it and somebody else has to do the cleaning up — mothers, fathers, teachers, doctors etc …

In line with picking it up and bagging it, it is just as important to dispose of the dog poo in a public bin or bring it home and bin it.

Kilcullen Tidy Towns volunteers pick litter on a daily basis — it is not the nicest of jobs but they do it day in day out. One of the most fouls items you can pick when picking litter is a bag of dog poo.

Sadly there are large number of people who do their picking up duty — pick the poo up, bag it, but then think it is fine to fling it into a hedge, in to a crack in the wall, behind a bin!. Yes this happens.

People have said to us that they don’t pick up because there are not enough bins in the town to put their poo bag into. There are two answers to this –
• Bring it home – put it in your own bin. Once in the bag it is secure, won't leak, can't escape, so bring it home.
• If a person walks a dog through the town all routes they will pass at least pass two bins.
• Walking your dog from Nicholastown to Logstown and back, you pass four bins.
• Walking from Castlemartin to the Naas Rd end of town you pass four bins.

Note — Kilcullen Tidy Towns can confirm that Kildare County Council have committed to installing and emptying four extra bins around the town in the coming weeks.

All through March you will see Kilcullen Tidy Towns awareness campaigns. If you do, please stop and discuss the issue of dog poo, air your support for the initiative.

Events planned include dog poo awareness sessions in the national schools, a dog poo 'bank deposits' event, a poster campaign … and more.

Please support the initiative. If you are one of the offenders we ask you to please pick up and bin your dog’s poo … after all it is your town too.


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