Hastings – Dog Poo capital of England?

The Philosopher is surprised it has taken me so long to get round to this. It is no use, I have to succumb to a rant about the horrendous volume of dog poo on the streets of Hastings and St Leonard’s.

It seems specially bad at the moment – possibly because we have had so much fine weather.  It seems particularly noticeable on the roads round the West Hill – I guess a lot of people take their dogs for walks up there. 

It is a mystery to me – we have moved here from Birmingham, which has a much higher population density, but far less of a poo problem.  Why are so many Hastings dog-owners so lazy and inconsiderate?

It is hard to know what to do about it if the dog owners are not prepared to take responsibility.  We lived up on the West Hill for a while when we first arrived here, and I remember our neighbour tackling one offender.  His response was to tell her to ‘F… off’ and that ‘he knew where she lived.’

Indeed, when we were out walking last weekend, we passed an aggressive-looking man out with his son and three staffie type dogs.  One dog did a huge steaming pile in the middle of the pavement.  To be fair, the son did say ‘Dad, clean up the s..t’.  Cowardly though it sounds, and especially for someone who calls herself ‘Battleaxe’, I couldn’t bring myself to turn round and see whether he actually did pick it up.  I knew if I did look, and he had left the pile untouched, I would not have been able to stop myself running after him and remonstrating with him.  I was afraid of getting a faceful of abuse or worse.  I imagine a lot of people must feel like me, and it is impossible for the Council to police every area all the time….

This gives all dog owners a bad name. We will be getting a little dog soon, and I don’t want to be lumped in with the squalid few.

PICK IT UP!!!!