Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Dog Rights


It seems here in Minnesota that our hygiene oriented Northern European forebearers determined that dog waste is a serious menace. Fine. Signs thoughout parks and pathways throughout the state proclaim the responsibility of dog owners to clean up after their pets. Fine. So taking Baron for a walk recently down a forest pathway, we practically had to slalom the route avoiding horse apples at every turn. Now where is the justice in this???


As you can see here, some members of the Audobon Society had to place themselves strategically on the trail to avoid stepping in horse manure. This does create a technical problem for the group. Watching the trees and shrubs fore birds and keeping an eye on where you are stepping, all at the same time, can be rather difficult.

"Horse manure generates so much heat as it decomposes that large piles of it have been known to spontaneously combust." - Little Book of Horse Poop by Becki Bell.

As you can see in the above quote, beside the issue of dog versus horse equal rights, is the danger of horse apples causing forest fires in our beloved parks. I rest my case. :-)

13 comments:

  1. Horse apples causing forest fires...Damn, something else for me to worry about....lol.

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  2. I swear officer, it wasn't my campfire that burned down the forest. It was the horse poo;) That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
    Marnie

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  3. Ha ha! You make some very good points! I guess those horse people would need to have some pretty big clean-up bags, though.

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  4. Well how indignant. I think you should organize a protest. Maybe a scoop or two of the horse apples delivered to the authority might get some attention too.

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  5. WEll, people generally walk behind the dog's rear end, but they ride ahead of the horse's rear end, hence, it becomes somebody else's problem.

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  6. Yep, same here, a $250 fine if u leave your dog po as I step over the horse and geese do do...makes no sense to me to scoop it up in a plastic bag to be deposited in a land fill which then will take how many years before the plastic breaks down so the scooped poop can work its magic in the soil...modern day thinking....go green or should it be go brown? plus my dog has been trained to go in the grassy areas not on a sidewalk or stoney path.

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  7. I agree---where's the justice??? Poor dogs get picked on. What about the horses???? I remember hiking in the Dupont Forest in North Carolina. It was pretty miserable since horses used the same trail... Horses at least need their own trails --where there are no hikers. Just my humble opinion.
    Betsy

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  8. Same story in the State and National forests around here. Dogs on leash; horses can run you down. Dodge the road apples while you walk.

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  9. Why can't horse owners use those horse diapers you find on carriage-horses in cities? It may not be very comfortable for the horse, but it sure beats scraping poo off your shoe. And that way the owner bears the burden of proper disposal and maybe reaping the benefit of fertilizer for the home garden.

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  10. Can't say I have ever thought about it before despite the fact that we have the same laws for dogs here and I have on numerous occasions had to leapfrog a mound of horse manure.
    Well your quite right...where's the justice?

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  11. I'm laughing... Seriously, most dogs that are walked around woodland or park trails are smart enough not to crap on the trail. Show me a horse that does that!

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  12. On a completely unrelated note, your third picture reminded me that I stopped off for a birding interlude at Mayo Woodlands the other day on my way home from work and as I was driving out, Lance (the guy with the white t-shirt talking to John in your photo) was just driving in. I recognized his face from that birding trip to Forestville, but I had to admit I couldn't remember his name (even though he remembered mine). It was fun to see him again and relive the memories of our Forestville birding adventure.

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