Nobody would have believed it when I was a kid. But sometime in the 1980s, it became unthinkable to fail to bag up your dog’s poop. Previously, it was unthinkable to bag up poop.
Nobody used to do that. What they did do was let their dogs out first thing in the morning so they could rove the neighborhood in packs and terrorize small children and pick up a mess of fleas and a torn ear or two and then let them back in for Ken-L Ration in the evening. Even if you did want to bag up your dog’s poop, and I’m confident no one did, it’s not like you knew where the hell they were.
Consequently every lawn for miles around was full of turds. The only thing you could say for certain was the ones in your yard weren’t going to be from your dog because your dog would never poop in his own yard. Periodically someone might take a little shovel and flip them into the hedge. But that wasn’t a regular thing. Those of us who, by virtue of our size and energy level, did a lot of rolling around on the lawn encountered turds all the time. It was turds and chiggers as far as the eye could see. If we were lucky the turds would be white and crusty.
Anyway now you never see dogs running around on their own. They’re bodily attached to their owners and they poop and they scuff up the soil with their rear feet and then they stand proud as an AKC champion watching their owner bag it up like Christmas.
The whole routine contributes to my lack of interest in having a pet dog again, but I am very much in favor of the bagging. I think it is a sign of civilization. Seen one way, it is a strike against freedom, but the freedom to be a total butt to your fellow citizens is a pale principle. A sense of responsibility is important in a crowded world. It’s interesting. Both the conservative and the progressive viewpoints like to claim the Adult Outlook. The conservatives tend to think of it in terms of people seeing after their own needs like an adult, and not relying on others, theoretically rewarding honest work. Which is a valid viewpoint. In my mind, it doesn’t account for the abject poverty of the hardest-working people in the world and the fecklessness of the very rich. But.
There are other dog-shit differences between modern conservatives and progressives. The right wing tends to elevate private property rights, should one be so fortunate to own such, earned or otherwise acquired. Progressives are more likely to elevate consequences. So one group might keep a very neat lawn free of dog turds, and the other will take responsibility for the roaming dog.
One group will lobby for the right to pour concrete in wetlands for a big box store, and the other will lobby for wetland conservation and responsibility for cleaning up effluents downstream. It’s my lawn, says the first group, and But it’s your dog, says the second.
I’m rooting for the shit-baggers. The other approach might have a negligible harm if there weren’t nine billion of us, but there are. If we’re going to send our dogs out in the world, we should be prepared to bag it all up.
Just one of the reasons why I wouldn’t want a dog. I don’t like having to deal with my own poop, let alone pick up a dog’s. Also there is the walking several times a day in all kinds of weather. And ticks. Mind you, I love dogs. As long as they’re other people’s.
You’ll have less trouble dealing with your own poop if you attach a plastic bag directly to your heinie.
An ass condom! Brilliant! Maybe they could make one for dogs!
I can’t stand picking up poop and the idea of carrying a warm bag of it down to the end of the trail and back makes me gag. Luckily, our smallish dog makes a habit of depositing his extrudements around the far outer perimeters of our yard. Yay! Thanks, Peebs!
The scenario of a bag of warm poop likely would make me throw up. Which the dog would then eat. Which would make me throw up again. Lather, rinse, repeat….
Shout out to my friend Margie here! I said something of the same thing when she bagged up her Lab’s poop and put the bag in her jacket pocket on a cool winter day. “I like it. It keeps my hands warm,” she said. So there.
Overpopulation was on my mind just the other day.
You do know we’re not up to replacement numbers in population these days–and the powers that be are very upset about it because the engine of the economy relies on ever more people!
…including the funding of Social Security, the original ponzi scheme if I understand correctly.
I’ve never owned a dog in a city of any size, in the ’50-early 60’s Bend was still smallish, and I have no idea where the German Shepard Kim pooped. He wandered, so it must have been somewhere else.
In Butte, when I first moved there 25 years ago, dogs literally wandered free. You didn’t need to ‘own’ a dog, if I left my house for a walk, within 2 blocks a dog had joined me, tagging along. They were free to come into all the taverns and bars, lay on the floors and cage snacks from the patrons.
I think if one has a dog in a city, they should be responsible for dealing with it’s droppings…also, although I’m not a cat person by any stretch, I just read a statistic from what seems a reputable source that the vast majority of bird deaths are caused by cats. If so, seems something could be done about that too.
That’s true about cats, Mike. I have also read from reputable sources that outdoor cats are responsible for more songbird deaths than any other source. Not window strikes. Not running in front of cars. Not windmills. Cats. If dogs cannot be allowed to run free, neither should cats.
YES. WE COULD KEEP OUR DAMN CATS INSIDE. Like the lovely Tater! Mike, when our dog Boomer had the run of the neighborhood (fencing problem), I was in the local tavern with my friend Fred and he was just ordering a beer when BoomBoom trotted in and without skipping a beat he said “And a bowl of Heidelberg for my friend.”
Murr
When I first moved to Butte, I lived up the hill in a area called Walkerville, a down on it’s luck area of a down on it’s luck town, back then. A large dog that lived next door, a Nefy/shepard mix, would walk the half mile down to a bar around noon, lay on the floor eating peoples hamburger leftovers, nap, and walk back up the hill to home around 4. I’m not sure his owner ever had to buy food for him.
Pick up. Put in pocket. Great hand warmer in the winter. You’re welcome. Next Door topic one day was why people didn’t have to pick up after their horses. Good question.
In the 1980s we had a local gentleman who rode his horse all through the neighborhood, and might I remind you, we’re in the middle of the city. It was a cool sight and I understand the horse would occasionally walk into the tavern with him. Rumor had it he rode a horse because he kept losing his license. I miss that guy.
Yeah- and why is it that cats seem to think my backyard is their latrine? Besides the bird diet – their poop is esp dangerous for pregnant ladies and be-smeared gardeners…..
It’s especially galling now during nesting season.
My definition of a Libertarian is “One who believes that freedom and freedom to destroy are indistinguishable.”
I haven’t had a cat in many years; I don’t want to deal with cat poop, plus my wife is allergic. When she wanted to get a dog again, I made it clear I don’t want to pick up poop. We hire someone or it doesn’t happen. I make an exception for walks: of course we pick up the poop.