DOGGY doo-doo don’ts
IS IT OKAY TO PUT A DEPOSIT FROM YOUR POOCH IN A STRANGER’S BIN?
Is there still any point using www. when typing in a web address? If not, why do so many firms continue to use it in their promotions? The www. prefix is now predominantly outmoded and unnecessary. For that matter, so is putting http:// in the front of an address. Having .co.nz or .com, or the myriad alternatives on the end of an address, will be enough to tell the little electronic mail-sorters inside your computer that you are sending a message to someone on the web. I say “predominantly” because a tiny proportion of users may want to use www. to help differentiate between subdomains. I’m not entirely certain what that means, but I doubt that applies to anyone reading this column. Why businesses still use the www. on the their promotional material, I don’t know. I suspect it’s inertia – no-one’s cared enough to take it off. In my view, it just adds to the visual clutter of a promotion.
This is not so much a matter of consumer law, but etiquette. You walk your dog every day. Being a decent citizen, you carry a plastic bag and pick up any deposits left by your pooch. Is it reasonable to drop a knotted plastic bag containing a deposit inside someone else’s rubbish bin which is out on the footpath?
I think it is reasonable to drop a securely tied plastic bag containing your dog’s deposit inside a bin that’s awaiting collection. Some bin owners might object.
If you’re told to remove the package, do so without fuss and try another full bin or, even better, take it home. But given all the unmentionables already in a full rubbish bin, I don’t think many people would complain. However – and I say this with a capital H – this does not apply to an empty bin. You have no right to drop your dog’s doo-doos in a bin that’s still out on the footpath but has already been emptied. No-one wants to look after your dog’s deposit for a week. In fact, I suspect if you consistently did this, it could well become a matter of law and you might, rightly, be fined.