Calling all dog owners, both residents of the area and visitors. Please consider carefully your views on the following questions:

Do you really want the councils forced into a situation where they have no choice but to introduce even more stringent bylaws governing the ownership and exercising of our dogs?

Do you really want to live in or visit a place that is littered with bags of excrement hanging from trees?

Do you really want to be continually scraping mess from yours or your children’s shoes?

Do you really want fouled wheels trailed into your homes and garages?

Do you really think it is safe for little children to dig up dog poo on the beach?

If you are honest, I suspect your answer to all the above is ‘no’.

There is a way to avoid any of this using a simple, voluntary code of practice:

Think of others. Who do you think is going to clean up if you don’t? Who do you think is going to pick up your discarded bag?

Watch your dog while it is on or off the lead, so you don’t miss it doing its business.

Make sure you always have at least a couple of bags in your pocket or bag.

If in the countryside with plenty of scrub, where nobody walks or plays, save some plastic by using a stick or stone to flick the poo off the path into the scrub.

If in fields where stock graze pick it up – any worms can be harmful to livestock.

If there is no dedicated dog bin, it is acceptable to deposit your bags in litter bins.

If there are no bins at all where you are, please double wrap it and take your bag with you to deposit at home in your grey bin or in a litter bin on your way home.

Surely it is worth making the effort to make sure we can continue to enjoy our open spaces and beaches with our dogs?

Brenda Burnside

Vincents Road, Kingsbridge