Dog poo sacks along trails: Why?

[Peabody]

I posted this previously in a trip report....but from the Wayback machine circa 2012.........someone hung there B.O.P. from a tree at head height smack dab in the middle of the Angels Rest trail. I was in the lead.....Mrs. P was following, head down hiking, as they say. I saw and avoided it. Mrs. P did not. I was able to react appropriately for about 5 seconds before.....

is not a proper response, or so I was told.

[scrambler2]

Peabody, that bag could have been hung there as a statement by an upset hiker - as in don't forget this on your way back down.

One time I returned from an overnighter in Table Rock Wilderness and found someone had emptied a poo bag on the running board of my vehicle. I guess they assumed that since I was the last car in the parking lot the evening they hiked out, the poo bag left in the trail must have been mine. Here's the kicker...I don't have a dog and the poo just got left in the parking lot.

[Chip Down]

Couldn't resist sharing this pretty purple polka-dot plastic pooch poop pouch:

[Chip Down]

Like Peabody (above) I recently found one tied to a tree:

[Guy]

And in a new low I hadn't come across until today at Trillium Lake. It now seems that "some" self important Dog Owners now feel it's OK to bag their dog poop then toss onto the floor in one of the multiple Trillium Lake area toilets. Obviously feeling justified in their actions that others lower down the socioeconomic scale than them will be happy to come along behind and clean it up.

[BigBear]

I miss the days before doggie bags. The forest was so much cleaner back then, and the plants received the nutrients they needed to grow up big and strong. I wonder what percentage of dog owners actually carry out their doggie bags and dispose of them somewhere other than the forest? Is it 10%...or less?

Politically inept: a bad idea forced upon others to eliminate negative feelings of an individual and replacing them with negative feelings for all.

[retired jerry]

I think bags are more for city. Good idea.

In the wild just flick off trail where no one will step on it?

Especially if the alternative is putting it in bag, then leaving bag there. That makes no sense.

[Guy]

I miss the days before doggie bags. The forest was so much cleaner back then, and the plants received the nutrients they needed to grow up big and strong. I wonder what percentage of dog owners actually carry out their doggie bags and dispose of them somewhere other than the forest? Is it 10%...or less?

Politically inept: a bad idea forced upon others to eliminate negative feelings of an individual and replacing them with negative feelings for all.

Yep!

[drm]

I miss the days before doggie bags. The forest was so much cleaner back then, and the plants received the nutrients they needed to grow up big and strong.

Waste from 100% carnivores is far less nutritious for plants than from animals that eat grasses and the like. Normally there aren't very many predators/carnivores in the wilds, so it doesn't have to deal with very much of their waste. The number of dogs is way out of proportion to what most wilderness areas with large hiking populations can take. Also, dog poo carries more giardia than any other animal. If the forest was much cleaner back then, it was either because there were fewer hikers, or fewer hikers with dogs.

[fetch]

"Flicking" dog shit contributes to the spread of diseases. Plenty of the ones possible will happily hang out in the soil, sometimes for years/decades, until a naive dog or unsuspecting human roaming off-tread does a little fecal-oral route exposure.

While dog feces is compostable, it takes far more steps than just "fling it and forget it". To tell oneself otherwise is just so one can sleep at night. There's been times where I missed pockets of poo on the compound during the annual cleanup. Other than being moldy and dehydrated, it's still recognizable dog crap 1-2+ years later. Wild carnivore scat it ain't and never will be, no matter how many Blue Buffalo commercials lies a person may choose to personally believe.

Unless your (general your) dog eats what you eat (and you eat paleo) and is guaranteed clean as a whistle parasite/disease-wise, there are zero legs to stand on when arguing for leaving dog feces in any environment other than ones own damn property if it's not buried in a depth-correct cat hole.