The animal-waste problem is, and is not, a load of crap
Burying or composting Pal's pungies is not a good idea. Some of the worst disease germs can live in the ground or in compost for months or years. Nor do the researchers advocate flushing the doodies down the toilet. "Nothing wrong with that," Ward says, "but it isn't something most people want to think about. If we want them to change behavior, we have to suggest a method they're likely to use." In other words, pet owners who don't think twice about leaving feculence in the back yard don't want to bring it into the shining and sweet smelling bathroom.
So what are you to do if you can't let sleeping dog turds lie? What Snohomish County officials prefer you to do is scoop it up, bag it, and put it in the trash. Then it goes to a managed landfill that's lined, sealed, and eventually covered. A disgusted archeologist will get his hands in it a thousand years from now, but in the meantime nobody's swimming in it.
The Snohomish County study included cat waste but found it to be less of a problem to the water environment than dog dookies. Cat owners may be proud to know that their pets produce about 270 percent fewer tootsies than dogs, a rough estimate, not calculated as an average download from the average cat. And anyway, nobody owns an average cat.
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Jun 10, 12:05 p.m. inappropriate
What are we going to do when we can't use plastic bags?: I've often wondered what will happen when plastic bags, especially those the newspapers come in, aren't allowed anymore? I also would be curious as to how much of the waste in public garbage cans, such as at parks, consists of dog poop.
Posted Wed, Jun 11, 9:20 a.m. inappropriate
Where does it end?: Mr. Simmons: Boy I miss your wry commentaries on KING. That said I have to wonder where the logical end of this waste stream issue ends. Can't use plastic -- it must be banned. Without plastic, it can't be put in the trash. Maybe just throw it under your rhodies, as I do. But of course that kind of suggestion is elitist, insensitive to the poor downtrodden folks who don't have rhodies. The larger question is, when we at last realize that everything is harmful, and that those pushing their Nanny State regime on the rest of us have succeeded in outlawing everything but killing babies, where will we be? Ecotopia? More likely, in a fascist state where having pets and being a Christian are capital crimes.
Posted Thu, Jun 12, 6:59 a.m. inappropriate
Crappy research: On the positive side, the situation has improved tremendously from 200 years ago when this area was overrun by deer, bear, sea otters, cougars, and other woodland creatures, none of whom had the courtesy to scoop after they poop.