, because nobody would ever put unbagged dog waste in somebody's trash can. Right?)The arguments pro go something like this: It's difficult to carry around dog poop in a bag while you're walking your dog and reading the newspaper (and possibly juggling a cup of coffee at the same time). Trash is a public commodity, and nobody can claim personal ownership and total control of their trash can. Finally, it's no big deal putting dog waste in somebody else's trash can: At most it's going to be there for a week, until the next collection day. And trash cans are supposed to have trash in them.
The arguments against are often not expressed eloquently. But that lack of eloquence doesn't detract from the main argument against using a stranger's trash can for your dog's poop: it's gross. Here's how one Tenleytown listserv contributor expressed her feelings:
handy, and use bags that, um, seal in the scent.
I live on 46th Street and we all (the immediate neighbors) maintain a clean and attractive alley. I even keep our supercan clean and always tucked away against the fence. So why are you so inconsiderate as to throw your dog poop in my trash can? Your dog's poop is runny, and your plastic bag cheap and thin, therefore it has leaked into our can and now I get to clean out the dog poop, and all the maggots that have sprouted from your thoughtless and insensitive act. I am very careful about recycling and usually only have 1-2 tidy bags of tear-proof hefty brand trash bags in my can. The trash men usually just reach in and grab my bag, rather than flip the supercan over into their truck. So your bag of slimy, leaky dog poop sits there for over a week and festers. You cannot imagine what I am thinking of doing to you, should I ever catch you red-handed. You will likely need to call in the hazmat team. In the future, throw your own dog sh*t in your supercan! It's your dog, not mine.Whatever you do, whatever you think, be sure you have dog waste bags
handy, and use bags that, um, seal in the scent. 
We also suffer with people walking up to the side of our house to put poop in our supercan. Some people put it in the can, and others hang it over the edge so that we can put it in ourselves. It's rude, and it makes my can smell. If people do not want to pick up poop and/or carry it home to their own garbage cans, then they should not own dogs. There is no obligation to own a dog, just an obligation to take responsibility for the animal once you bring it home.
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous. Poop is poop. It grosses most people out. I may be okay with my dog's poop, but I can't say anyone else is okay with my dog's poop. Just like I wasn't really bothered by changing my kid's diaper, but I wouldn't expect a stranger to want to deal with it. Dog poop can give you really nasty things like intestinal worms and coccidia or giardia. Who knows what sort of condition the mystery dog is in, or the last time it saw a vet? Just put it in your own trashcan.
ReplyDeleteI agree, keep your dog poop to yourself. That's so gross and inconsiderate to do that.
ReplyDeleteJust make sure your double bag your dog poop and not carry a newspaper, coffee, whatever. You're supposed to be paying attention to your dog, right? So carrying a bag around shouldn't be that hard for a 15-30 minute walk.
Be considerate!
If I caught someone doing it, oh, boy, they'd get it handed right back to them. Put it in your own trash!
I possess no desire to handle or smell a bag of fetid dog poo. Dog owners who hang small plastic bags filled with this thoughful gift delicately on the edge of our building dumpster would not want to be around when the bag of poop drops to the ground, exploding as the trash can lid is lifted by one of our residents.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's the half-life of that plastic bag that holds the waste?
For the person who feels it is ok to place maggot infested, giardia, coccidia, tapeworms, roundworms, hookworms, Salmonella, E. Coli, infested, etc...is certainly a person who is filling your trashcan with filthy, festering shit. Caught in the act!!! I better not ever see you. Furthermore, you are treaspassing on someone's property, this in itself is a crime and you can be arrested for it. May your personal trash can be filled with wet, rank, maggot infested, tape worms, round worms, hook worms, Giardia, coccidia, etc..SHIT. How arrogant and narcissistic can you be that you feel you can put shit in someone's else's trash can May your world be filled with dog shit!!! And once you see worm and maggots crawling out of dog shit, I can assure you that you will never eat pasta again.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea, if they get on your property, call the police. That would deter them from thinking the whole world and their dog poop is theirs!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous need to chill out. It's not _your_ trash can. It belongs to the District. And the alley is not private property. All this legalistic and medicalistic bluster just makes anonymous sound unreasonable.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want people putting trash in the trash can, put out a note saying so. Otherwise, I think it's reasonable for a well-intentioned person to keep the neighborhood clean by putting trash in the nearest receptacle.
When I walk my dog, I carry extra bags with me and I pick up other dogs' poop if I see it. I also pick up the McDonald's and 7-11 food that Zoo tourists leave scattered about. I put all of this in the nearest Supercan. It occurs to me that this trash could be infected with all manner of parasites. I wonder if anonymous would rather it just be left to rot on their sidewalk, yard or curb.
In most places, the trash can DOES belong to the home owner. THEY PAY FOR IT . . . and they are also held responsible and can be ticketed if they leave it out on the curb too long . . .because it IS THEIRS.
DeleteWhy should the person who owns the trash can be responsible for putting on a sign, when the person with the dog isn't responsible? I am so sick of people blaming their laziness on everyone else, and expecting everyone except for themselves to be responsible.
No, no one wants things to rot on the street, they just want people to be responsible for themselves so other people don't have to be. Wouldn't it be better if the person who drank that 7-11 drink and ate McDonald's threw away their trash into an appropriate receptacle so you wouldn't have to pick it up? OF COURSE it would! Just because you choose to take on other people's responsibilities (well, you half-way do it anyway), doesn't mean that we shouldn't teach those people who are not responsible how to behave appropriately.
The poop you put "in the nearest supercan" can sit there for weeks on end, COOKING and BAKING and becoming EVEN MORE DISGUSTING and making that person's life less-enjoyable for weeks on end, and exposing them and their family members to diseases all because you are too lazy to take the trash to your own can. Or even better . . . you know how gross the trash is, so you choose to put it in someone else's can so you don't have to smell it for weeks on end, or have it leaking out of the bottom of your can so you can walk through it and track it into YOUR house. So selfish, so lazy, and so irresponsible.
You claim to be helpful, and I'm sure you go home and puff yourself up and pretend that you are so amazing because you picked up trash . . . and really you are just rude.
If I could get those people who put their dog waste in my supercan I'd take that plastic bag and whup them upside the head with it. I'm the one has to clean it up -- I don't come sh*t on your property, don't leave yours on mine. Doesn't matter if the city "owns" the can -- I'm responsible for it and I keep my stuff clean. Similar, but not as bad -- dumping your almost-empty beer bottles in my recycling. Stinks up the whole thing, I'm the one has to wash it out. I am lucky to have a garage, and have my trash cans exposed as little as possible, on collection nights.
ReplyDeleteDogs are not the problem. DOG OWNERS are.
Just as anonymous suggested, I put a sign on the can... only to find poop pinned to it the next morning.
ReplyDeleteThis is just gross. One bag broke on a 100+ degree day; I had to clean it out. If you aren't prepared to carry your dog's poop to the next appropriate trash can, you really shouldn't have a dog. Yes, our cans are DC property, but they are meant to ferry our residential trash to the city's truck. They come on our property; some of us even put our number on it. How about I collect a week's worth of poop from some undisclosed source and drop it off at your place?
I feel for most dog owners, because I know most are responsible. It only takes a few...
I live in the vicinity of Rosedale. Most users with dogs seem to pick up after their pets and take the waste bags with then. Occasionally, however, people have come on to our property to dispose of dog waste in the garbage can. Worse are a few who leave bagged "offerings" at curbside near the park, rather than taking the bags away in their vehicles, in the expectation that grossed-out neighbors will remove the bundles.
ReplyDeleteYes, as mentioned, YOU ARE TREASPASSING ON MY PROPERTY when you put your wrapped dog shit in my trash can and I will have you arrested, or find where you live, have every homeless drunk PEE and SHIT and PUKE very close to your property. Drunks are always walking up from Connecticut Ave. late at night and I see them throwing up, peeing and shitting frequently. I would love to watch you scrape off the bottom of your $800 Ferragamo loafers after stepping in fresh, "steam coming out of it", diarhea, dog shit. Or step in some drunk's PUKE!!! Nothing worse than this!! I will even pay drunks to puke in the alley and your front yard. They can't help it. There is no law against it. They can stand in the alley which is public, directly behind you house and puke!! It will fester on a hot day and really stink like hell. The smell of beer vomit stinks so bad!!!! I really can't see anyone as narcissistic and arrogant some of our neighbors picking up litter along Conn Ave either. If you are reading the paper, do so at another time. Drink your coffee at another time. You should be checking your dogs poop for worms, mucous, blood, and perhaps the winning lottery ticket, not skirting the issue of your dog's shit. SHIT IS SHIT!! There is no getting around it!! Take it back to your house-don't put it in my can!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is extreme. A pregnant lady can puke, a child can puke, a middle aged man can puke from vertigo, and you can puke if you eat something bad at a restaurant. It happens. Some things you just can't hold until you get back home. Yes it smells. So does an old raccoon that someone hits close to your home, or a dead bird or a dead squirrel. But your trash can smells with or without dog poo and if someone is using it, it's because it's on public property like sidewalk or back alley, and off your own property. That means you don't really smell anything unless you walk by it. And as a dog owner believe me, I'm more likely to smell rotten tomatoes or apples or milk than poo. I never smelled poo coming from my trash and I dispose of poo twice a day. What do you keep in your trash if you consider it so clean? DO you eat raw foods? I bet you just keep some cartoons from processed foods that's why you complain. No one else would cause real trash smells whether you want or not.
DeleteAll the angry anonymous posters really need therapy.
ReplyDeleteChill out, folks. The supercans are not actually in your homes to smell them up. I can think of a million things to be truly upset about in this world. Seriously people...relax.
Or how about this?: Adopt a dog and find out for yourself how much genuine happiness and comfort they can give you. Maybe then you can relax?
It appears that those who have strong opinions on such things as "the super can belongs to DC and dog poop should be put into a receptacle as soon as possible" have a marginally average I.Q. or suffer from OCD.
ReplyDeleteOK, Karla, and everyone else that puts their dog poop in other people's 'DC-owned' Supercans.
ReplyDeleteSo they belong to you?! Will you clean them out when the smell becomes to strong, or a bag bursts open? If I see you put your dog poop in my can, and parasites happen to occur, can I call on you to clean my can?
You can rant all you wish, but you are inconsiderate, and wrong. Also, as stated before: LAZY!!!!
Of course they're not in my home, but I get to smell them when I do out in my yard to enjoy the day? Or the parasites might crawl into my yard where my kids play?
Get real, Karla. You're lazy, as anyone else that is inconsiderate to do this to their neighbors. You're what's wrong with the world.
Most of these comments are another indicator of why dog owners are bad neighbors. They care not for anyone else, and care even less for the property of others. Seems there are two choices...dog owners either don't pick up the poop, or they put it in someone else's trash can. And then there's those folks who allow their dogs to pee and poop on the plants and flowers that have been planted...but that's another gripe!
ReplyDeleteThe argument that household garbage cans are public property, thereby giving anyone the right to dispose of dog waste, is pretty lame. While some cans bear a "DC property" legend, we had to pay for our DC supercan. Except when it sits on pickup mornings at curbside, it stays on private property. We try to keep it reasonably clean so it doesn't attract insects and worse. I don't know why it is such a burden for some dog owners to carry their dog's waste home and dispose of it there.
ReplyDeleteDarlene,
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention in my post that we do NOT throw OUR dog's waste in anyone's trash can. Ever. We hang on to the waste bag until we get home or to a legitimate public trash can in the city to dispose of it.
I really wish you weren't such an angry person and that you would've refrained calling me 'lazy' when you don't even know who I am.
I hope you calm down soon.
Best regards,
Karla Gutierrez-Pugh
National Geographic Channels
The over-the-top reactions of people to the disposal of garbage in public gargbe cans is really astounding. Putting aside the issue of trespassing on people's property to access, the garbage cans (which most poop disposers do not do), the basic fact is that garbage is garbage. Do the garbage can owners really suppose that their own garbage "don't stink," as an old mentor of mind used to say? Pity the hapless guest who has the temerity to make his own deposit in these people's bathrooms, thus befouling the sanctity of their toilets.
ReplyDeleteThe person who posted on Sep 28 @ 9:55a: 'Most of these comments are another indicator of why dog owners are bad neighbors.' is the biggest asshole.
ReplyDeleteIgnorant asshole.
It seems to me that it would be considerate of everyone to take your dog droppings back to your own trash can. This way everyone is happy.
ReplyDeletehttp://dpw.dc.gov/DC/DPW/Publication%20Files/DoggyDuties.pdf
ReplyDeleteHere's a flyer from the DC Department of Public Works that asks dog owners NOT to put their bagged poop into their neighbors' trash cans.
I'm leaving a copy of this in the mailbox of an offender whom I followed home. With just her address, I learned quite a lot about her.
I came across this blog through a search about maggots in curbside garbage cans---mine. I've noticed over the last two weeks that there were bags of dog waste in my can. Apparently one broke open from the heat and its contents were stuck to the bottom of the can and full of maggots when I looked into it today. The smell was truly nauseating, as was having to look at the maggots. It took me at least 15 minutes to clean it. I had lean into the vile can (because they're so deep) to scrub the stuck on excrement, using bleach, soap, and my toilet bowl brush. I don't have a dog, (although I do love most of them), and I don't feel that I should have had to do this for the convenience of someone who does. After I was done, I had to wash the clothes I wore, shower, and I still can't get the smell or sight of it out of my head. I'm not being unreasonable---this shouldn't have been my job any more than cleaning piles of dog crap out of my yard should be.
ReplyDelete