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Council blitz targets dog owners

Posted on August 7, 2008, 7:07pm and updated on August 8, 2008 at 11:24 am

Dodging dog droppings along the Blue Lake footpath may not be as bad as dodging land mines in Angola, but leaving them behind could lead to a $55 fine.

Mount Gambier City Council chief executive Greg Muller said “defecating in a public place” was an “offence under the dog and cat management act”.

“It is an ongoing problem that has reached the point where council has to do irregular blitzes on dog owners using the footpath,” Mr Muller said.

“There are two containers with plastic bags for dog owners to dispose of droppings and they have no excuse not to act responsibly.”

The Border Watch yesterday strolled the path around the lake after a regular walker expressed her “utter disgust” in a letter to the newspaper.

“After beginning my walk this morning and counting no less than 15 piles of dog droppings on a 1km stretch of footpath, something had to be said,” Tracey Kourmouzis wrote.

The Border Watch tested her claims.

We counted numerous piles on a short stretch and spoke to a few walkers along the way.

Although some walkers did not want to have their names publicly linked to dog poo, they nevertheless agreed it posed a health risk and described it as disgusting.

Two walkers said although most droppings were next to the footpath, they still had to take their eyes off the beautiful views to dodge droppings on the concrete path.

“In one place it looked like the owner did not want to stop while his dog was doing his thing. It was plop, plop, plop along the path,” one walker said.

A few walkers who had their dogs on leashes refused to comment, but said their dogs did not “go to the toilet” along the way.

Regular walker Melva Whibley, who had two plastic bags tied to her dog’s leash, said dog owners had no excuse to leave droppings behind.

“People can bring their own bags from home if there are no bags in the council’s containers,” Ms Whibley said.

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Comments

One Response to “Council blitz targets dog owners”

  1. SMS on August 8th, 2008 9:12 pm 1

    On the topic of not picking up dog poo. I do clean up after my dog but with only two bins around the lake that are close together you end up having to carry it around for ages to dispose of it. So put more bins around the lake so ppl will do the rite thing.

    (received by SMS to 0427 135 114)