Don't read this over breakfast

If you run the statistics, Kilcullen's canine pets are probably depositing up to 74,000 kilos of poo every year, writes Brian Byrne. And if you walk around the town, actual empirical evidence shows not all of it is disposed of properly by some doggy owners.

I'm one of those many regular walkers who go along much of the time with our heads down. Not because we don't want to interact with others, rather that we're trying not to interact our shoes and homes with the very high level of dog excrement we encounter on Kilcullen's footpaths.

This is not a rant against dog owners. I have family and friends who own and love their dogs. And who invariably do the right thing when their dogs do their business while being walked in public spaces. But there are, clearly and noxiously, some owners in our local community who don't seem to give a sh-t.

Sad thing is, there's not much we can do about it. There are fines for allowing your dog to foul a public place without picking up after them. Owners or dog handlers who do not dispose of dog faeces in a responsible way may receive an on-the-spot fine of €150. You can be prosecuted in the District Court with a maximum fine of €3,000, and €600 per day for continuing offences on summary conviction. 

But there's hardly any way of enforcing these. The task is part of the county Litter Warden job, of which there are two, I think, in the whole county of Kildare. A report last year by the NCBI on behalf of vision-impaired people noted that there were just 82 dog fouling fines issued across the whole country in 2022. 

Some 17 councils around Ireland handed out no dog foul fines at all in that year. Kildare was not amongst those, it seems, but whatever dog poo penalties were issued are not shown in KCC's Annual Report, presumably incorporated in the equally minuscule number of 340 Litter fines imposed across the county that year. (The Council subsequently reported that it had issued 10 dog foul fines in 2022.)

It would be interesting to know if there's any correlation between those who don't pick up after their dog and whether they have licences for them? Running the available statistics again suggests that in 2022, six in ten of the 495,000 dogs in the country were not licensed.

Meantime, all we can do in Kilcullen is appeal to everyone in charge of a dog in our public spaces to do what they should be doing.

In some councils in the UK, it is an offence not to be able to show that you have a 'poo bag' with you when walking your dog in a public space. Reckon the chances of getting that one in here are zero to ... well, seeing a Litter Warden issuing a fine in Kilcullen to someone not picking up after their dog?

I'm still keeping my head down on my walks.

NOTE: For those curious about the statistical analysis here, without actual figures on dogs ownership in Kilcullen I had to extrapolate from whatever national surveys and figures I could find. This work suggested around 28pc of households nationally have dogs. Which would be roughly 400 dogs in Kilcullen. A medium-sized dog poos about 185kg a year, hence the 74,000kg figure. However actually accurate that is for Kilcullen, I reckon it got your attention. Please pick up.

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