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I’ve scrapped was I was going to write about this week.  My original article will have to wait another 7 days, because I’m more angry than i’ve been for a very long time.
The reason is simple. The unbelievable selfishness of some local dog owners who let their pets run free in local playing fields and don’t pick up the mess they leave behind. This is not an ‘anti pet’ rant. We have a dog ourselves, and there are many many owners who diligently carry a ‘poop-a-scoop’ and bag when they take their animals out for a walk.
But there are some who have no regard whatsoever for others, local by-laws and, quite frankly, any public responsibility.  They are putting the health of others, particularly children, seriously at risk, because of their wanton selfishness.

My lad, who’s 7, plays for a fantastic local youth football club called Central FC. It’s home pitches are on the Topsham Road side of the King George 5th playing fields. It’s a wonderfully run club, which has a fantastic policy of giving all the youngsters a chance to play whatever their ability.
They train and play on Saturday mornings.  What greeted the kids and parents last weekend was truly shocking.  One of the training pitches had so much dog mess on it that it was deemed ‘unplayable’.  It took parents armed with several plastic bags 20 mins to clear the second pitch and make it good enough for the teams to play on.
There can’t be many people who don’t know, but for anyone who is still unaware, dog faeces can pass on Toxoplasmosis which in worst cases can lead to blindness.
So, not only is it unpleasant in the extreme, but any child coming into contact with the mess when they fall on the grass, risks consequences serious enough to badly affect the rest of their lives.
The biggest frustration is that wherever you look in this ‘health and safety’ age, there are so many potentially less serious hazards that have safety rules rigorously enforced. How many times have we all said some restrictions are way over the top...and correctness has ‘gone mad’.
Yet this serious health issue continues unresolved.

The Council,who run the pitches, have erected signs about disposing of dog mess, and there are fines for anyone seen flouting the laws. But of course it’s impossible to patrol the large playing fields all the time, so we’re totally in the hands of the dog owners themselves.
I wonder if some even think twice about the risk they’re subjecting our children to. Perhaps if they saw the state of the pitches last Saturday morning they might just begin to realise what they’d done.  However what depresses me even more is knowing that many just wouldn’t give a damn.