Elsie’s message to dog owners
A LITTLE girl fed up of dodging dog mess on her way to school is taking a stand against the issue.
Baffled by the amount of mess on the pavements around her Porthcawl home, five-year-old Elsie Holyoake decided to send out a sweet yet strong message to irresponsible owners.
With the help of her mum, Elsie – who celebrated her birthday yesterday – has painted a number of posters urging people to scoop the poop and hung them on lamp posts around the town together with a supply of dog poo bags.
“We moved to Porthcawl six months ago from Oxfordshire and we live right opposite Newton Beach,” said Elsie’s mum Katie Jones.
“Straight away we were totally appalled by the amount of poo.”
Elsie started at Nottage Primary in September and she walks to school every day along with her aunty and cousins, one of whom is in a pushchair.
“On a daily basis these kids are walking up to the school and having to jump and dodge the poos – the pushchair is constantly going in to poos,” said Katie.
“They are constantly asking why is there so much poo and saying how horrible it is.
“At the end of the last school term we did our daily poo dodge and Elsie and I talked on the way home about how we get people to pick up their dogs’ poo, and she suggested that we could give people ‘those smelly poo bags that aunty Helen uses for Max (her labrador).’”
Elsie, who loves arts and crafts, got to work over half term and made four posters, which she had laminated.
And, if the need for them had not already been proven, Katie said that after finding dog poo under the snow and even in a snowball, they stuck the posters up at Newton Beach and on Mary Street and Victoria Avenue.
More will be put up in areas where Katie and Elsie see a particular problem.
Katie said: “I like to think that people just forget the poo bags, but unfortunately the reality is more that people are just ignorant or arrogant.
“We are very proud that Elsie has done these posters. Maybe a five year old can make a small difference.
“Porthcawl is a fantastic town with an amazing community spirit, but the state of the streets really lets it down.”