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Doggie doodoo can be deadly

Sunday, as I was driving to a friend’s house for what we call “card therapy,” I saw a woman out walking her small dog. The dog was hunkered down by a telephone pole and then scampered away after leaving its “deposit.

Sunday, as I was driving to a friend’s house for what we call “card therapy,” I saw a woman out walking her small dog. The dog was hunkered down by a telephone pole and then scampered away after leaving its “deposit.” The woman made no move to stoop and scoop.
We are all so relieved spring is finally here, but that incident reminded me of one of the less attractive aspect of melted snow. The piles of dog excrement revealed along our walkways and streets are disgusting.
Here are some alarming facts from DoodyCalls Pet Waste Management. “Dog feces are one of the most common carriers of the following diseases: whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, parvo, corona, giardiasis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis and campylobacteriosis.” I’m not certain what some of the “sis” are, but ick.
Please clean up after your pet. It is the respectful thing to do.
And of course now the snowdrifts are gone, they have been replaced with drifts of cigarette butts. In an age when smokers are forced outdoors for their fix, curbside gutters filled with butts are the norm.
Why don’t smokers consider their butts litter? Perhaps smokers all belong to the “toss the fast food trash out the window” society.
According to BMJ Journals, cigarette butts comprise 25-50 per cent of all litter collected from roads and streets in urban areas. “Cigarette butts contain all the carcinogenic chemicals, pesticides and nicotine that make tobacco use the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, yet they are commonly, unconsciously and inexcusably dumped by the trillions (5.6 trillion and counting) into the global environment each year.”
So beyond ugly, butts are truly toxic. Please butt out in an appropriate receptacle.