OAP wants council to get tough
A pensioner is calling on Stirling council to get tough on dog fouling after counting more than 60 pieces of dog waste within a 200-yard area in his street.
Peter McGuire, of Cultenhove Road in St Ninians, said he was sick and tired of those who don’t pick up after their pets, and he wants the local authority to take action.
The 69-year-old has repeatedly been in touch with the council about the issue, and reckons those responsible for leaving the mess are going unpunished.
It was revealed last month that not a single dog fouling penalty had been issued by enforcement officers since April last year.
Mr McGuire told the Observer: “I’ve been phoning the council on an almost daily basis. They are always polite, and say they’ll pass the information on, but I’m not sure anything is being done. When I was out I counted 60 pieces [of dog waste] within around 200 yards. It was everywhere – on the footpath, on grass verges and on the steps. The place is covered in the stuff.
“I’ve seen dozens of comments on social media about this, and it seems to be a problem in all areas – people in Bannockburn, Braehead, Cowie, all seem to have noticed it.”
Mr McGuire, who suffers from cancer, says the final straw came when he spent his Sunday afternoon disinfecting his house.
He added: “My granddaughter walked to the house [on Sunday] and she must have stood in some by accident on her way. As she came in to the living room we noticed the dog mess straight away. We then spent our Sunday afternoon disinfecting the
lounge carpet.”
Mr McGuire wants the council to start taking action against those who don’t pick up after their dogs in the hope that it will encourage other pet owners to act more responsibly.
He said: “I just want a straight answer – are they going to do something about this or not? It seems that they are refusing to do anything.
“While there are many people who do clean up after their dogs, there are many out there who do not.”
Another resident contacted the Observer to say that people appeared to have neglected to clean up after their pets during the recent snow storms – with a marked increase in the amount of dog waste seen on the streets. He said: “It seems people thought the snow would hide the mess, or that the dog waste would melt away with the snow – but that obviously hasn’t been the case.”
Last month Tory councillors were asking enforcement officers to give more focus to issues of dog fouling amid claims parking was receiving too much of their attention.
It was revealed that there were more than 8000 parking tickets issued since the council took over parking enforcement in May of last year but not a single dog fouling penalty had been handed out since April 1 last year. In 2015 council officers had been asked to attend dog fouling issues, or clear up dog mess, a total of 142 times, while in 2016 the figure was 119 and last year it was 166.
Councillor Ross Oxburgh previously said the local authority should be trying new methods in a bid to identify culprits. He added: “There is a scheme in England which matches DNA with dog fouling and has had great success. This and many other innovative schemes should be looked at to help tackle this persistent problem across Stirling.”
A Stirling Council spokesperson said: “We would encourage residents to report to us any irresponsible owners failing to pick up after their pets, providing as much detail as possible such as descriptions of the owners and/or pets to allow us to investigate and take action. The council provides free bags to encourage owners to pick up.”
What do you think about this story? Email robert.fairnie@trinitymirror.com.