I have a little bone to pick with someone, probably the city, but they never seem to listen to anyone so I will just throw it out there for anyone who cares, which is probably about two other people.
I don't have a dog and therefore don't have to pick up dog crap, which was one of my life ambitions when I was younger. After going for numerous walks through Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, and on several occasions stepping in either a fresh patch of cow dung or horse crap, I wondered if it was someone's job to clean this mess up so I didn't have to spend the rest of the day scraping my shoes on the grass and getting twigs to try to scrape the stuff out of the grooves in the soles.
"It' good luck to walk in it," my dad would say on occasion. But I think that was just his way of trying to shut me up. It certainly didn't shut my older brother up as he would slag me off all the way home. Little did he know that the shoes I was wearing were his. Mine had a hole in them so I borrowed his.
Can you imagine if I had worn my own shoes with holes in them? The stuff would have been squishing in the through the hole, through the socks and in between the toes. Not good for a two hour walk in the park.
Anyway, the reason I am mentioning this is because I have gone for a walk at Ginter's on a couple of occasions recently. A friend of mine walks his dog there and on the odd occasion when I have joined him, we BS while his dog craps with total freedom and immunity from any sort of prosecution and sniffs other dog's crotches to his heart's content.
As we enter the park, there is a sign post with a doggie bag dispenser on it (not the type of doggy bag you get from a restaurant) and my friend grabs a couple of the bags.
Off we go, coffee in hand, chatting about the inane crap guys will often talk about.
His dog Dixon, an 80 pound bulldog - and probably the friendliest dog you will come across - wanders ahead sniffing and peeing on anything he can find. Sure enough, after only a few minutes down he squats and leaves a nice large present for my friend to pick up in the plastic bag.
There has to be a better way to pick up this crap than a plastic bag. That feeling of warm, fresh poop fractions of a millimetre from your skin, even if it is only for a couple of seconds, must definitely not be the highlight of anyone's day. Then you have to carry it around like a trophy until you get to a garbage can where you can at last get rid of it.
If we are supposed to be the master in the relationship, shouldn't the dogs be picking up our crap?
I'm just saying.
Then I notice a trail that is used by people on horses, and the reason I know this is because right there only a few inches from my feet, is a huge pile of horse crap the size of a garbage can lid.
Luckily I wasn't wearing my own shoes, I threw on my friends shoes on at his house as my shoes had holes in them.
Now if every person who walks their dog in this area of our fair city is expected to clean up their dog crap, which is really only a small fraction of what the horses leave behind, why aren't the people who ride horses expected to pick up after their animals?
It is animal discrimination, I tell you.
It's the same for cats. You can let your cat wander all over the city crapping in whomever's flower garden it chooses yet there is absolutely no requirement for the owner to clean up their crap.
It's a good job we are not allowed to have exotic pets like elephants or blue whales in the city any more because encountering their leftovers on the trail would mean getting out the climbing gear.
So why is it that the poor dogs are being discriminated against?
Can you imagine if a dog was to leave a pile the same size as the horses? Now that would be one big dog.
Just the thought of trying to pry that thing off my leg gives me the shivers.
Shouldn't there be some black plastic bin liners available at the front of the park for those with horses to carry off their excrement?
It's only fair. Although you would also need shovels because it would take too long using your hands as you have to do with the dog poop.
You could however have someone walk behind the horse with the bag when the time came, or the horse could simply wear a horsy diaper.
After all you can get a feed bag to go over the horses head when he is hungry so why can't you get a similar bag to go over his butt when he's finished digesting it?
I think the city either needs to take a serious look at the concept of horsy diapers and cat crappers or just just let all animals be treated equally.
If your cat or horse can "drop trou" whenever and whenever they want with impunity, then why can't your dog?
