While walking the other day in a local park my wife and I were accosted by an older woman who was very upset because we did not "scoop the poop," a requirement in the park. She literally accosted us over the poop. When I asked her to calm down, she got even madder. Then I told her if she could not address me in a civil tone I would not listen to her. For some reason this worked and she calmed down to the point where I was willing to listen to her.
She said that our dog had pooped a few feet back and that we should clean it up. I said, "No, neither one pooped." I also explained that both our dogs were girls. so they might give the wrong impression. She wouldn't listen and backtracked to an old pile that she claimed our dogs had left, so to avoid any more conflict I decided to bag the pile and continue with our walk.
I have found that as I have gotten older I try to avoid conflict more than step into it (sorry for the bad pun). The woman who accosted us could have gotten much further if she had simply talked to us about what she thought she saw instead of getting mad at us. She was generating conflict.
Most dogwalkers do not leave piles on the trails, otherwise the heavily traveled trails would be packed with excrement. I think some dog lovers do need to be reminded from time to time that cleaning up is their responsibility. I noticed an owner leaving his dog's pile one time and he said the bags were gone from the stand at the start of the trail. "No problem, I've got one!" and the owner cleaned up the mess.
There is a cost for the local/state/federal governments to provide bags and to clean up poop left by other, less considerate dogwalkers. On the other hand, roughly 40% of American families own at least one dog and we do pay taxes. As our North Georgia becomes more crowded and the local/state/federal governments are cutting costs, we all must work together to keep our common areas clean.
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