Camel incident a good reminder for animal owners

A recent News-Herald story about the mess that resulted from a camel defecating in Madison Village Park elicited an abundance of comments on Facebook. The most common reaction, it seemed was people expressing disbelief that anyone would find fault with the camel for pooping in the park.

But these people seemed to overlook a bigger problem: that the owner of the camel failed to clean up properly after the animal.

Mayor Sam Britton discussed the incident during the April 26 Madison Village Council meeting, which was held remotely by video conference.

The camel, which stopped by the park with its owner a few weeks ago for a little exercise during a road trip, ended up defecating in multiple spots on the property, Britton said.

To make matters worse, the owner didn’t clean up adequately after the animal, leaving behind a dirty job for village Road Department employees, Britton added.

Britton said he had learned, after the fact and from a resident, that the camel was being transported on Interstate 90 by its owner.

“They got off at our exit (the I-90 and Route 528 interchange) and were looking for a place to stretch the camel’s legs,” Britton said.

After arriving at Village Park, located at River and West Main streets in the community’s downtown, the animal’s appearance “turned into a photo op for everybody in town,” the mayor noted.

“People were just parking on the road and just getting out of their cars and taking pictures of the camel,” he said. “And a gentleman told me — he’s one of our bike riders/walkers every day — that the camel was in the park for probably about an hour and a half.”

About a week later, Britton was contacted by other citizens who reported seeing piles of excrement that apparently were produced by the camel. One place where the animal defecated was on the floor of the gazebo, where musical performances and other community programs are held.

“Well, the camel did his business on the stage ... and nobody cleaned it up real good,” Britton said. “So I called the road crew in, and then we started going through the park. And the camel (defecated) more than once. It was quite a mess to have the Road Department clean it up.”

In our opinion, this controversy could have been avoided if the camel’s owner would have removed the animal’s feces from the gazebo and the park’s grounds before leaving the site. One would think that if the animal is transported by trailer, the owner might bring along a cleanup kit of some sort — perhaps a shovel, bags and gloves — to remove deposits made by the camel during pit stops.

And think for a moment about the atmosphere at Madison Village Park. It’s not a densely wooded area with primitive trails where it might be more common for wild animals to defecate.

Instead, the park is a typical village square with sidewalks and grass, which is regularly mowed, where people walk around or sit and relax, and children play. It’s a place where you would expect dog owners to clean up after their canines. So it seems appropriate that owners of camels or other larger animals that visit the park would follow suit.

Animal feces is unsightly to look at and unpleasant to step in. We believe that Britton was justified in being perturbed about the excrement left behind at Village Park by the camel.

For animal owners, cleaning up after their animals on public land or someone else’s private property is really a matter of common courtesy. It’s a good rule of thumb to follow, not just when walking or exercising dogs, but camels as well.