I have discovered that dog doodoo can be very interesting! While doing research for a recent article I wrote on Dog Poop DNA, I have uncovered “piles” of information that does get one to thinking. So this article will discuss dog waste management. What do you do with your dog’s doodoo?
Ways We Dispose of Dog Doodoo
When you are out walking your dog, how do you dispose of the doodoo he leaves on the streets and sidewalks? Do you carry a plastic bag to scoop it up with? If so, even though you are being a good pooper scooper, you are using a less than environmentally friendly product to pick it up.
Even worse is what you do with the dog waste after you pick it up. If you deposit your dog’s waste into the next available trash can, it will then go to the landfill, wrapped in that plastic bag. According to the professors house.com a plastic bag can remain in tact under ground for hundreds of years.
Some people collect their dog’s waste and throw it in a compost pile. They may think they are recycling and doing a good deed, but did you know that a compost pile can breed some nasty things while that dog doodoo sits there getting warmed by the heat?
Dog waste is full of bacteria. Round worms can live in the soil for 4 years. Nasty organisms like e-coli and salmonella can also survive in the dog’s waste or the dirt around it. The trash cans on the street that are full of dog doodoo can be a breeding ground of potential diseases.
An article in Natural Dog Magazine stated that American dogs produce more than 10 million tons of poop a year. That’s a lot of crap (pardon the pun) to be disposed of. So where does it all go? Is it in landfills, sewers, buried or just lying around breeding disease?
There is no good answer on disposing of your dog’s waste. People do it in many different ways. Let’s hope we are all disposing of our dog’s waste as environmentally friendly as possible for the area we live in. The next time you go to take your dog for a walk, at least consider how you are disposing of its waste.
Are you using a plastic bag? Are you throwing it in a neighborhood trash can where it will sit for who knows how long? Think about these things before your dog’s next walk. Search out a few more environmentally friendly ways to dispose of your dog’s waste.
I don’t know the answer, but I have hopefully given you something to think about. Think about it, 10 million tons of dog waste a year! Watch for a follow up article on one organizations way of trying to protect the environment by managing all of the dog waste!
And if you’re interested, here’s another article about using DNA to find out who left the dog poop behind!
