Dear Editor,
[RE: Maple Ridge dog walker pissed with discarded poop bags, April 12, The News online]
Dear Maple Ridge dog walker, who is pissed with discarded poop bags, I want you to know that you are not alone.
We community members, who take pride in the cleanliness and sanitation of our community, understand the frustration about the dog poop bags.
I also would like for you to think about this…
Have you ever seen someone attempt to make an environmentally friendly decision by leaving a pop can or bottle beside the garbage can in hopes that a Good Samaritan would pick it up and recycle it responsibly?
Did you know dog poo is banned from our city garbage cans?
Did you think that these people might be trying to be like the person who made an attempt to recycle the pop bottle by placing it beside the garbage can, not in it.
My point is, people leaving their doggy doodoo has been going on long before COVID came around.
These people who are leaving the poo under the garbage bin most likely are not scared of touching the garbage bin handle and they aren’t lazy after all, they just know the harmful effects this biohazard has on our environment.
When dog poo is put in the landfill and not disposed of correctly, it harms vegetation and exposes people and other animals to bacteria and parasites.
Have you ever visited the Pitt River Regional Greenway? It is a beautiful walking trail along the Fraser River in Pitt Meadows.
I recently visited this trail on a Father’s Day walk with my dad.
Believe it or not, I did not see one bag of dog poo anywhere. I believe the reason for the scarcity of the dog poo filled bags were because of the accessibility of all the wonderful dog poo bins! This area is maintained by the Metro Vancouver Parks and in my humble opinion, the City of Maple Ridge and also Pitt Meadows should take notes and implement this genius idea.
Why is it that at places, such as off-leash dog parks and other trails, where many of our fur babies love to walk are deprived of dog poo waste bins?
If they created half as many dog waste bins as they did garbage cans, this would actually give the citizens responsible choices to make while disposing of our crap, literally.
Maybe we wouldn’t be finding all these little bags of doggy poo poo everywhere and we wouldn’t have as many Maple Ridge dog walkers who are pissed with discarded poop bags.
Brooke Taylor, Pitt Meadows
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