National Dog Walking Month: Don’t rely on the poo fairy!
January 16, 2025
For National Dog Walking Month, Olivia French, who leads engagement on heathlands, explains why bagging and binning dog poo is so important.
What better way to beat the January blues than to get out for some fresh air with your four-legged friends! Here in and around the South Downs National Park, we’re encouraging you to get out with your pawesome pals and enjoy the countryside responsibly.
According to the PDSA around 28% of adults now own a dog, and there are thought to be around 10.6m pet dogs in the UK. Whilst we love our four-legged companions, there’s a rather unpleasant issue which comes with more dogs in our countryside.
Some of the most popular dog walking sites are the stunning heathlands which cover just 1% of the National Park. A recent survey showed that more than three quarters of people visiting heathlands in the South Downs are dog walkers. Roughly 2,028 football pitches worth of this rarer than rainforest landscape belongs to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which use it for military training activities. Having owned these sites for over 100 years, the MoD has ensured these species-rich heathland habitats remain in existence today – protecting them from competing factors such as agriculture and housing development.
How many of us have come home from a in the countryside only to find we’ve trodden in dog poo?
Take a moment to think of the people who work out in the countryside every day. Dog waste poses a hazard to many people working in the countryside, such as farmers out in the fields, rangers working to manage habitat and military troops training locally. Often soldiers will be on 10-day exercises, crawling on the ground and unable to change clothes.
On a recent survey conducted by the rangers at Longmoor Inclosure, near Petersfield, 72 dog poos were found within 200m of the main public access point onto the site, with an additional seven bagged dog poos left or hanging in branches.
As well as being generally unpleasant, it is in fact a myth that it is ok to leave your poo on the ground to ‘decompose’. Unlike poos from grazing herbivores, dog waste contains a parasite called Neospora. If ingested by livestock, Neospora can have a devastating impact on grazing cattle and sheep and their unborn young.
These parasites, along with several other types of harmful bacteria can also leech their way into our waterways, damaging the aquatic ecosystems and contaminating our own drinking water.
So how can you help? We’re calling on everyone to do their bit, and not rely on the poo fairy!
- Whilst walking in the countryside please clean up after your dog. If there are bins, please use them to bin your dog waste, any public waste bin will do. What about if there aren’t any? There are plenty of poo carrying solutions on the market now, and even just using an old plastic take-away box to store it in until you get home will do for a short journey.
- Our friendly rangers regularly do pop ups with treats, bags and useful tips on being out in the countryside with dogs
- Encourage other fellow dog owners to do the same as you.
By understanding the impact of dog waste on our countryside, we can all make a difference to help Take the Lead and keep our favourite dog walking areas beautiful for generations to come.
For more information see our Take The Lead page.