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To the Editor,

Spring is finally here and we’re happily venturing outside. Our daffodils are blooming, the trees are budding, the dog poop is everywhere.

The reservoirs are undoubtedly some of West Hartford’s best recreational walking spots. The proof is in the number of cars parked along Canal Road, Route 44, the overflowing parking lots. Sadly, the proof is also along the trails in in piles and in multicolored dog poop bags along the trails (even floating in the nearby streams).

I have heard some great excuses for not picking up after your dog:

• Nobody’s looking
• It’s yucky/smelly/dirty
• I scoop it and put it in the storm drain
• It’s natural, I leave it in the woods to decompose
• Someone else will pick up the bag if I leave it on the side of the trail
• My kid forgot
• I didn’t see where it went
• I don’t want to carry it

I have some even better reasons why you should do it:

• It’s your responsibility as a dog owner
• It keeps dog waste out of stormwater (and bacteria out of streams, rivers and lakes). The storm drains empty into local waterways.
• Dog poop is polluting. A single gram of pet waste contains an average of 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, some of which can cause disease in humans
• Your pet can pick up Whipworms, Hookworms, Roundworms, Tapeworms, Parvo, Corona, Giardiasis, Salmonellosis from dog waste left by others
• Consider it litter, put it in the trash
• Town ordinance 155-26 requires you to do so

Please, neighbors and visitors, if you want to be able to bring your dog to public places in West Hartford, take the waste out in a waste bag and dispose of it properly.

If you bring your Doodle on the trails, please take his doodles out when you leave.

Wendy Fritz
West Hartford