I am writing in response to a letter entitled ‘Beach gone to the dogs’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, July 31).

My boyfriend and I take our dog regularly to Mġiebaħ beach (also known as Selmun Beach) and I have never smelt dog urine there. As for dogs urinating on belongings left on the beach, this has never happened to me, nor have I seen any dog on Mġiebaħ beach doing that.

Just for the record, it is unneutered male dogs that have a tendency to cock their leg, so the writer’s comment “Everyone knows what dogs do” is not quite correct unless he is, of course, being very linguistically correct and is, in fact, referring to ‘dogs’ (males) as opposed to ‘bitches’ (females).

Mġiebaħ is a dog-friendly beach and if foreigners don’t know that, then that can easily be rectified by the local council putting up signs to say so. As for locals, if you are happy to share the beach with dogs, then be responsible and lock your food away when unattended.

If you don’t like sharing the beach with dogs, there are plenty of other beaches you can go to. There are very few which dog owners can go to! For the record, I have never met anyone at Mġiebaħ who was opposed to my dog, it is quite the contrary.

Furthermore, in response to the writer’s comment that most dogs do not actually enjoy swimming, I can assure you that the dogs I have seen at Mġiebaħ absolutely love swimming. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than seeing my dog swimming and loving every minute of it.

I guarantee you, the sand is not filthy due to our four-legged friends, but rather to our two-legged kindred species, who leave behind their personal waste – cigarette butts, plastic bags, dirty wet wipes and tissues, plastic bottles, cans… the list goes on.

We always take a roll of garbage bags to collect other people’s disgusting waste while at the beach. However, having said this, I find Mġiebaħ beach to be a lot cleaner than some of the so-called blue flag beaches.

The real concern is human waste. The litter we leave on the beaches is detrimental to our environment, especially to marine life. A little dog dirt from an irresponsible dog owner will eventually bio-degrade, causing no environmental damage whatsoever.

I do, however, strongly feel that dog owners must be responsible for picking up their dog’s waste and disposing of it properly, just as parents must – when disposing of nappies and wet wipes – and smokers – when throwing away their cigarette butts.

Please remember, the world does not belong solely to the human species.

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