In a St Leonards family’s latest effort against the scourge of dog poo William MacKnight has made a sign asking dog walkers to clean up after their pets so he and his sister Sophie can get to their nana’s house, mess-free.
Their mother, Antonia Wood, said the children regularly crossed the grass strip to their grandmother’s and frequently encountered dog poo.
However, the problem was not only outside the children’s nana’s house, it was all over the streets in St Leonards.
"It’s all just littered across the path," Ms Wood said.
Ms Wood and her two children regularly spray the offending messes with water-soluble paint to keep people from stepping in it as well as serving as a visual reminder.
"[We are] just trying to remind people to do what they should be doing, because there’s poo everywhere," Ms Wood said.
When the family first started spray painting poo on the walkway in 2021, they realised cleaning up the mess was not a three-person job, so Ms Wood organised a community cleanup.
She organised another cleanup a year later, and noticed the dog poo levels had reduced by about a third.
"I think there has been a bit of a reduction, but there is still too much," she said.
Two years on, and the family are still fighting the good fight.
The children help their mum by spotting dog poo, tying compostable dog bags to poles and fences around the neighbourhood and they also get to have some fun spray-painting the smelly offenders.
Ms Wood and the children hope to see more bins put in the area, and some dog bag dispensers with compostable bags.
"[The Dunedin City Council] have improved the signage along the 5km West Harbour walkway which is a huge improvement,
"I would love to see the signage they’ve used on the West Harbour path in other places, such as the continuation of the path," Ms Wood said.
Failure to remove your dogs droppings from public areas is an offence against the Control of Dogs Bylaw and carries a fine of $300.
