Tired of dog poop on your lawn?
STEVE LYTTLE
The Charlotte Observer
Tired of finding dog droppings on your front lawn?
You’d better hope a young woman is walking the neighborhood dog past your house – and you might want to consider leaving the suburbs or rural area for the city.
A study conducted last August and September, quoted in today’s Raleigh News & Observer, shows men and rural residents are least likely to clean up their dog’s poop.
Before you think this is a tasteless or silly subject, read on. “It’s a big water-quality problem,” Chrystal Bartlett told the Raleigh newspaper. “It’s also an aesthetic problem.”
Bartlett is stomrwater awareness and outreach coordinator for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Her agency, along with the East Carolina University for Survey Research, conducted the survey. Bartlett says dog droppings get into water runoff, causing water quality problems in the state’s streams and rivers.
The problem has surfaced recently in several area communities. Town government in both Mooresville and Davidson has discussed pooper-scooper laws within the last year, although no regulations have been adopted.
Here are some findings of the study, which surveyed 1,000 North Carolina residents and has an accuracy of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points:
***47 percent of urban residents “rarely” or “never” pick up dog poop. That compares to 49 percent of suburban residents and 47 percent of city-dwellers.
***People in the 18-24 and 65-older age groups are most likely to clean their dog’s poop. Least likely are those in the 35-54 age group.
