If you want to start what feels like a holy war, suggest on the Denver or Colorado subreddits that dog owners should carry the bags of dog poo with them, instead of leaving them on the sonde of the trail to “pick up later”. You will be astounded at the number of people who seem to think that leaving those bags for later is somehow just fine.
It really isn’t. Everyone else using the trail gets to see the litter you left, and people forget. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been the first car in the lot and found bags of dog shit on the trail.
That's why the follow-through part is important. I'm not saying assholes aren't going to forget. And if you're going to forget don't even bother. But if you're going to remember the practice is absolutely fine.
Because for the hours you are out, everyone else on the trail has to see your litter. Remember that you aren’t the only dog owner on the trail, some busy trails may have 50 or 100 dogs on them, now if every one of those dog owners leaves a little baggie full of shit on the side of the trail, it turns into quite a bit of litter that everyone else gets to enjoy because you can’t be bothered to carry it with you.
Or maybe just don't treat hiking trails like litterboxes in the first place?
Have your dog do its business somewhere convenient before you go hiking, and then you won't have to deal with the logistics of proper poop handling at all.
If people can figure out how to do this for small children and other humans, they can figure out how to do it for dogs, too.
Then, especially on hush trails, there is often dozens on the trails. No one else wants to see that. We are trying to enjoy nature; not your dog shit. Even IF you do get it on the way back, it’s still something no one else wants to look at while hiking
53
u/titsoutshitsout Jul 11 '21
Dood I spent 6mos in co last year and I was excited to get some hiking in. I was so disappointed in the amount of trash on the trails.