 Barked: Mon Jan 16, '12 12:50pm PST |
 | |  | | "Wait...how is dog poop any worse than any other poop? Totally confused about that....how does dog poop spread disease more than any other poop?"
Sanka, my reasoning is that it's mainly a function of density- there are WAY more dogs in your average suburban area than there are coyotes, raccoons, etc in the woods. And when you hike in the wilderness, you're bringing in more density than that area would otherwise support, especially in well-used trails.
The second point is that in urban and suburban areas, most of the ground is covered by paving or building roofs which cannot absorb all the rainwater that falls on them, so it flows over the surface and picks up fecal matter which goes into storm drains and then into rivers. In a natural system, there is a complex mix of plants and trees growing in uncompacted soil with decomposing biomass which can filter and absorb the rain so it's not spreading contamination into streams. This feature is completely missing in man-made environments.
Also, most dogs eat kibble that isn't digested well so there's still a lot of usable energy in it. This contributes to stream eutrophication (death by overnutrition, the algae grows out of control and then dies, where its decay sucks all the oxygen out of the water.)
If you don't like the idea of your dog's poo going into landfills, bury it instead so it doesn't enter the watershed. 5 inches deep (where there is the most soil microbe activity) is supposed to work the best. If you backpack, you do this with your own poop, right? Why not do it for the dog's poop too? |  |  | |  |
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6
. I've watched him do it at least twice! And any other time he just drops the bag of poo right on the side of the road or into someone's yard.
