June 13 is World Poop Scoop Day and though this may not be the most enticing topic for most, many quite rightly complain about poo on their pavement.
The law is clear on the topic. You can get fines for not cleaning up after your dog, not carrying poo bags on a walk and letting your dog off lead, which might just poo where you can’t see it.
While it’s great looking at the nutritional information and ingredient list on your dog’s food, nothing will tell you better than their poo whether the food is being digested and absorbed correctly. Poo is meant to be firm but not hard and dry. Runny or dry poo could indicate a problem with diet or disease. Mucus may indicate digestive upset or infection. Tiny white specs or spaghetti-like worms are a sign you’ve fallen behind on your de-worming schedule.
Worms are not everyone’s favourite topic at the dinner table but for families with children, this is unfortunately when they get ingested. Children love playing on the floor and touching everything that is new. If they forget to wash their hands before they eat or scratch their eyes, worms can quite easily find their way into their dinner or eyes. If that doesn’t happen, the worm may just hitch a ride on a fly onto your food. There are a number of parasites transmitted this way but toxo-cariasis is the one which could blind you if it finds its way into your eyes.
Dog poo is not the only source; cat poo is just as effective. Cleaning it up right away ensures the larva never reaches the life stage that could infect you. This is not to mention all the other harmful organisms that set up camp in poo, like E. Coli, fecal coliform bacteria, salmonella and giardia.
What to do with it? Well, you should pick it up with a plastic bag, turn the bag inside out and bin it. For those who want to get creative, you may want to turn it into something useful and throw it into a composter in an environmentally-friendly way.
This is not for people with weak stomachs or for vegetable farming but it’s a good way to enrich the soil in your flower bed. Dig a hole in the soil three feet deep, put the poo bin in that hole surrounding it with stones for stability.
Throw the poo in the bin, cover it with soil, sprinkle some water and close the bin, of course.
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