Syracuse.com - CNY dog owners should be more responsible on outdoors trails with their pet's messes

[HuntingNY-News]

For the record, I own a dog myself.

I hope this column doesn’t upset too many of my readers who are dog owners.

For the record, I’m one myself.

However, someone has to speak up about irresponsible and lazy folks who take their dogs out on outdoor trails used by others for cross country skiing, snowshoeing or hiking, and then allow their pet to poop in the middle of the trail and do nothing about it.

The recent warm weather hasn’t helped matters.

I was out cross country skiing last Sunday on a town-owned nature trail near the Skaneateles trash transfer station and couldn’t help but notice stretches where there were brown streaks caused by skiers on the trail. There were doggie deposits nearly every 10 yards in places.

Nearly every morning, my wife Laura and I walk the Charlie Major Nature trail near my house in Mottville. Same deal. You have to be extra careful where you step.

Folks should bring a baggie to pick up their dog’s messes – or at the very least kick it, or get a stick or piece of bark and flip it off the trail. Is that asking too much?

I don’t know what people are thinking. Anyone who owns a dog knows their waste doesn’t naturally dissolve in the snow. So what happens when the snow completely melts on these trails? Answer: They’ll be covered with dog poop.

I mentioned this on my outdoors page on Facebook this week, PS Outdoors, and got a few interesting responses.

“I never noticed on snowshoes, but cross country skiers seem especially sensitive to having anything on ‘their’ trails except for other cross country skiers,” said James Wright, of Syracuse.

Kevin McMartin, also of Syracuse, sided with me.

“Camillus Unique has gotten ridiculous regarding this on the hiking trails,” he wrote. “There are land mines everywhere and mostly right smack in the middle of the hiking trails. People have gotten especially lazy and inconsiderate concerning this.”

I love dogs as much as everyone else. I can’t say the same, though, for thoughtless owners.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog