Girls clear 3kg of dog poo from pitch
Team forced to clean up before match kick-off
A Perth football club is calling on Fair City residents to clean up after themselves when out walking their dogs.
Before Jeanfield Swifts U15 girls team were able to play their friendly match last weekend, they had to clean up almost three kilograms of dog poo off the pitch, along with a number of empty cans and broken glass.
The girls were due to play Hibs on Saturday, February 10 when they had to move to the football pitch at Perth Grammar School as their usual site at Riverside pitches were too frozen to play on.
However, before the starting whistle, the club had to clean up the mess left behind on the secondary school’s football ground.
Iwan Davies, Jeanfield Swifts’ secretary, wants to encourage people to clean up behind them and take better care of their community.
He said: “It was not just a couple of bits of dog waste. Generally there is always something to clear up, but on this occasion there was a lot more.
“From our perspective, we were concerned about the health and wellbeing of the players and opposition, and it is not a great advert for opposition teams to come here and experience that.
“I’m sure you’ll understand when I say how embarrassing it was for us to be picking up dog poo from the Jeanfield Swifts ladies team was forced to clear the pitch before the match against Hibs girls
pitch around the Hibs girls as they were warming up.”
He added: “There are bins around the pitch and bags can be provided, so there is no excuse. People are aware of the dangers it poses to kids especially, but to anyone using the facilities.”
Mr Davies said he does not want to discourage people in the Muirton community from being active, however he wants it done more responsibly. He continued: “As a
club we want to encourage healthy activity, whatever form that may take, and dog walking is part of that.
“But we want people to make sure they clean up afterwards because it is not nice for us to have to go and clean up ourselves before a game.
“I want people to have a bit of consideration to other green space users.”
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “While we recognise that the vast majority of
dog owners are responsible and ensure they clean up properly after their pets when out in public places, there are a minority of people who choose not to do this.
“We would continue to urge residents in this area, and around Perth and Kinross, who are concerned about dog fouling, to contact our animal welfare team in confidence on 01738 476476. You can now also report dog fouling via the council’s online portal MyPKC.”
We were concerned about the health and wellbeing of players and opposition