The scoop of the Poop

CCSC instructor Cindy Jansen and CCSC Owner/instructor Ginger Huxley beside part of the haul from Grindstone. Both Cindy and Ginger are also members of the Show Me Canines Club that orchestrates cleanups.

Sometimes scooping the poop means getting all the best gossip. Sometimes it means, well, scooping poop!

Today Show Me Canines went to Grindstone Park and did clean up duty. We do this several times a year, in part to help ensure Grindstone continues to be viewed favorably by the city as an offleash dog area. Today the area was particularly dirty. We probably hauled out well over 200 pounds of poop, most of it from around the Grindstone and Capen entry areas.

I really try to keep my sense of humor about most things, and believe it or not there are many worse things than spending an unexpectedly warm January day walking the trails of Grindstone, even dragging a cart and doing the stop and stoop to pick up cold gelatinous dog doo. But it's not so funny that so many Columbians seem to think it's fine to let their dogs go all over the park (and each other's yards, and wherever) and not clean it up.

There are lots of reasons why you should pick up after your own dogs. The most obvious is because it's the law in Columbia. But I think most people don't really care about that. To a lot of people, picking up is stupid and gross, and they just don't want to do it. Besides, it's nature, right? All that poop will just break down anyway. Why pick it up?

Here's why. First and foremost, because it's good for the ecology. Yes, dog poop is a natural thing. But a heavy load of carnivore dung, such as what we found in Grindstone today, is hard on ecosystems. Dog feces can carry e. coli, Salmonella, and worms among other lovely items. These wash into our creeks and streams. Grindstone and Hinkson creeks are already polluted enough.

Secondly, nobody wants to step in it. I've seen toddlers running barefoot through the lush grass at Grindstone. If they step in poop, it could make them sick. Heck, it could make your dog sick if he steps in or inadvertently ingests another dog's poop. Then there's the great fun of getting into your car and discovering it's ground into your brand new Brooks Adrenaline running shoes you just paid $100 for at the Starting Block.

So come on Columbians. Put us out of a job. Pick up your dog's poop and dispose of it in the trash on your way out of the parks. It's the right thing to do. It's time for more than a few of us to step up to the plate to make sure it gets done.