My wife Jenny and I went for a couple of pints in McHugh’s pub yesterday evening. Something we haven’t done for a while. We had a lovely chat and the Guinness was great as always and, as usual, the time for heading home came all too soon.
Off we went anyway, holding hands like two young lovers as we walked homewards down the Chord Road without a care in the world.
When we got home I lit the fire and Jenny started cooking the dinner. A short while later, as we sat on the couch, I suddenly got a terrible smell in the house and it was definitely nothing to do with the cooking!
On closer inspection it turned out that I had stood in dog poo on the way home and the sole of my right shoe was thick with the smelly, noxious mess.
I have noticed in recent weeks that the amount of dog poo on the footpaths in Drogheda has got really bad. There was a big campaign some years ago to get dog owners in Drogheda to clean up after their pets and the pavements became much cleaner but things have taken a backwards slide – like I nearly did yesterday.
As it happens, and totally unrelated to my shitty misadventure, the fines for failing to keep your dog under control are to be doubled to €300 as part of new measures by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys.
In addition to the increased fines, dog wardens will now have the power to issue multiple fines at once if they come across an owner who potentially breaches multiple regulations stated in the Control of Dogs Act.
Of course the majority of dog owners are responsible and caring people, so these measures aim to address those few who disregard the law and endanger others.
But it is really obvious that some owners literally couldn’t give a shit about how much their dog fouls the footpath.
I walked down the Chord Road again this morning and it seems that one dog owner is allowing his or her dog to poo in the same stretch of footpath and, judging by the size of the droppings it is a big dog.
Whoever it is, would you please cop yourself on, think of others when you let your dog or dogs out for a poo.
Next time it might not be a grumpy old man like me stepping in the shit, it could be a child who could get very sick.
I noticed this morning that someone has taken direct action and has sprayed white paint around piles of dog poo and left a message of their own on the footpath also (see the photo above). Well done that person.
