New campaign hounding dog owners

Wednesday 13 May 2015

The Environment department has a new pet to hound dog owners and try to free the Island’s streets and fields of dog poo.

They hope "Eric" – the face of their new campaign – will encourage people to pick up after their pooches and stop breaking the law.

The sight of dog poo makes most of us barking mad and picking it all up is a costly job for the States - their parks and gardens team has to pick up around 15 piles of poo a day and hand out 1,000 emergency dog poo bags every month.

But it's dangerous to humans and other animals too, full of diseases and parasites - that the department says causes abortion in cattle and costs Jersey Diary £20,000 a year.

Pin badges, poo bags and posters are now available from parish halls, vet practices, pet shops and some schools in a bid to get rid of the mess and the Eco-Active team are hoping Islanders will help track down the worst places for dog poo around the Island.

Jane Burns of the Eco-Active team, which is leading the campaign, said: "We just want to remind the small minority of dog-owners who let the rest down that their actions - or lack of - impacts public and animal health as well the beauty of the Island. It is also really annoying when you step in it.

"As our population grows, so does the number of dogs and things are starting to get a bit out of hand in certain places. We just want to get things back on track." 

Here are some facts about dog poo you might not know:

• There are over 7,500 licenced dogs in the Island, each producing around 79.5 grams of poo a day - that's around 221 metric tons a year.
• Dog poo is one of the leading sources of E.Coli contamination.
• An average pile of poo contains 1.5 billion E.Coli bacteria.
• Parasites found in dog poo include neospora, hookworms, ringworms, tapeworms, salmonella and roundworm.
• The neospora parasite in dog poo causes abortion in cattle.