Attention all dog owners...
IT is always upsetting to read about dogs being killed by other dogs and generally causing problems for people and wildlife. There has been a well-reported case in Salford this month but this is not a one-off incident.
In the park where I work, my dog has been attacked a couple of times and this week there was another horrific case when a woman asked a dog owner to pick up his dog’s mess.
The man reacted by attacking the woman. A bit of a coward as well as a bad dog owner then?
And let me stress that being a dog owner, I know it is all about the owners and not the dogs. Figures are often thrown around that it’s a small percentage of owners who are bad. I would argue that the majority of owners would support their dogs if they misbehave.
In some ways it’s understandable because you wouldn’t want your pet to be put down if it misbehaves badly, but then they shouldn’t really misbehave should they? And it is your fault after all.
What has this got to do with wildlife? Well every single one of our nature reserves has reported problems with dogs. Dogs attacking volunteers or running amok in areas important for our native wildlife.
And the reaction of the owners? “He has never done anything like this before” or “I have always let her run around here off the lead and nobody has complained in the past.”
Then there is the poo problem. A nature reserve in Lancashire is so blighted by dog dirt that families are now refusing to go there. There are poop bins but selfish owners refuse to pick up the dirt.
This has a huge impact on volunteering on the reserve as our work parties need to be covered from head-to-foot in protective gear to clean up. We cannot afford to dress people like this, so our habitat work suffers greatly.
So my fellow dog owners, isn’t it time that, when we are out with our pets, we think about our neighbours and our fellow creatures?
To become a member of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside go to the website at www.lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129.
For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshire wildlifetrust.org.uk.