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Cleveland Dog Owners - Cleanup Your Dog's Droppings Please

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Olsen Ziegler Realty

Attention Greater Cleveland Ohio Dog Owners - Please cleanup your dog's droppings!

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) has a radio campaign underway that I have heard quite a few times these days about the importance to our water supply, rivers, streams, and our community local health which can be improved by simply cleaning up your dog's poop.  You can read about the campaign here.

I can honestly say, I have never NOT cleaned up my dog's (and I have two large Labrador Retrievers) droppings when walking about my neighborhood.  We have streams, a fishing lake and a swimming lake in my own neighborhood, so it doesn't take much of an imagination to think that if there are droppings left and there are streams nearby, and when it rains, that and the associated bacteria end up ultimately in our own swim lake, not a pretty mental picture.

The NEORSD estimates that there are 90,000 dogs in Cuyahoga County which equates to approximately 45 tons of dog droppings per day.  I'm not sure I want to go there with a visual image of what that collectively would look like, but that huge # sure helps underscore the importance of being a responsible pet owner.

I can tell you point blank there are other dog owners in my neighborhood who don't scoop the poop, and while we all love our dogs, we sure don't love what they leave behind, so if you are one of these irresponsible dog owners, please, please, get with the program to help cleanup our environment.  Not only that, but there is nothing worse than watching your child run through the grass and go squish!  As Huck Finn once said: Nuff Said!

Comments (6)

Kymberly Caldwell-Muniz
(909) 973-0410 - Fontana, CA
TCR Group Keller Williams Realty Rancho Cucamonga

Hi Chris, this is such a great post. I do not have a dog so I do not want to go to the park, run and have to avoid the droppings. Hopefully pet owners in California will read this post.

Jun 27, 2010 04:46 PM
Linda Hinson
S & L Properties - Calabash, NC

I have a motorhome so I am used to cleaning behind mine, also...but sometimes I wonder what about all the bird droppings, squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc.  Or even worse, the fish in the water...how did we ever survive all these hundreds of years.

Jun 27, 2010 05:00 PM
Karen Anne Stone
New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Real Estate

Chris:  After reading your post... the answer has become very obvious to me, especially after reading Linda's comment in # 2.  We need to get these doggone animals and birds... to wear diapers.  Just think about it... fitting all your neighborhood's squirrels with diapers.  Rabbits as well.  And, I cannot even imagine what you'd do about trying to pin a diaper on a deer.  It boggles the mind.  But hey... my mind has been boggled before.  Still is, in fact.

But hey, in order to have a green world, sometimes we have to put up with the poop... so to speak.

Have a great Fourth of July Weekend, Chris !

Jul 01, 2010 02:42 AM
Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

Hi Linda -- In the past, the population was much less dense, and there were far fewer environmental toxins polluting our lands, rivers, streams and lakes, but when they did, and there were no antibiotics, some people died, plain and simple.  Couldn't beat e.Coli?  You died.  I think it's a matter of degrees, but you have a point.  Personally, I don't want to swim in a lake where I know trace amounts of animal feces is just floating around, I'd rather go to the pool, but that's just me.  I would have been a big hit back in the 1700s.

Hi Karen Anne -- You made my morning! :)  I imagined a saturday night live skit with all those pampers and even perhaps the targets of Sarah Palin soiling their diapers when she has them in her sights.  Perhaps a better idea than trying to pin a diaper on a deer would be to have them use contraception.  But as you know being a former Clevelander, we have a history in this country of using our waterways as garbage bins, just remember the Cuyahoga River catching on fire, let alone heavy industry dumping toxins into our waterways.  Change is always hard, but I sure think we could do a whole lot more to help reduce our impact.  Have a great 4th too.

Jul 01, 2010 03:00 AM
Karen Anne Stone
New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Real Estate

Chris:  Two things come to mind here.  First... I have wavered slightly, and combined your comment with mine, and am trying to picture Sarah Palin in a diaper.  Not a pretty sight.  Secondly, we're going to make YOU responsible for getting those big boy deer to use contraception.  Boggles the mind.

Sure, I remember the Cuyahoga River catching fire.  But do you remember watching Mayor Ralph Perk's hair catching fire ?  Remember Ralph ?  One of Ralph's very first jobs was that of an ice man.  He drove an ice truck, and delivered blocks of ice to folks.  He would carry the block of ice into folks homes, and put it in their ice box.  Honestly he did.  No punchline here.

Jul 01, 2010 03:13 AM
Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

I wasn't in Cleveland during this general time frame, so I just wiki'd him (you should do it as well -- it's quite a hoot) -- about some of his other gaffes.  Interesting note: he formed the NEORSD in response to the river fire.  The rejection of an invitation from the First Lady so his wife could go bowling is so quintessential Cleveland.  Thanks for the history lesson Karen! :)

 

Jul 01, 2010 03:35 AM