Excuses
Excuses are like a-holes, everybody has one.
EXCUSES
Dog owners know perfectly well that using the neighborhood as a toilet is wrong.
“I pick it up.”
“I pick it up” is not the defense you think it is. Dog waste is fecal waste. Like human feces, it can contain fecal bacteria and disease-causing organisms. Picking it up removes the solid waste, but it does not make fecal contamination inherently harmless. The fecal residue remains, and repeated dog toileting damages grass and plants.
Dog feces isn't lawn fertilizer. It introduces concentrated nutrients, organic waste and potential pathogens into landscaping that was never intended to function as an animal toilet. And when the same small patch is used repeatedly, the cumulative impact matters. If you don’t want that happening on your own property, why should someone else be expected to accept it on theirs, and then pay to repair and maintain the landscaping your dog is damaging?
Have you considered the monthly costs property owners incur and the significant cost of city contracts to maintain these landscapes? These spaces require ongoing investment and maintenance.
“Dogs have to go when they have to go.”
Sometimes true, but owners still choose where they routinely walk, stop, and encourage their dogs to relieve themselves. Again, why not YOUR property? Why not train the dog to use the street (still goes into water runoff but less contact).
If your dog understands that the restaurant floor isn't a toilet, the dog can understand that the picnic lawn isn't one either. The difference is what the owner permits.
“Everyone around here has a dog.”
Popularity doesn’t turn a shared lawn, picnic area, playground, a peoples park into a dog toilet. If enough people started changing diapers on the picnic tables, we wouldn’t declare the tables a changing station.
“My dog only pees there.”
But why does that automatically make your neighbor's park lawns or private gardens, the solution? Repeated urination creates odor, damages vegetation, and makes any area unpleasant. Use your own property. Find an appropriate designated area. Use a pee pad if you have to. The fact that your dog needs to urinate doesn't create an obligation for everyone around you.
"FU, mind your business...."
this is a common response from dog owners when asked NOT to use others private property as an open air sewage facility.
If this is you, have been getting away with this too long without consequence. If this request to stop feels like something is being taken away...what made you ever think it was ok in the first place?
Once a property owner expressly denies permission to enter their property, there should be no ambiguity: neither the dog nor its handler has the owner’s consent to use that property.
“you’re angry about poop”
Interesting that asking adults to manage their own pets is considered childish, but expecting the entire neighborhood to accommodate your dog’s shit and piss is your idea of adulting.
IF IT SO INSIGNIFICANT- DO IT ON YOUR OWN PROPERTY!
7 Day Challenge
Keep your dog’s bathroom needs entirely out of spaces meant for everyone else. See how much you’ve been relying on other people’s space to make dog ownership convenient.
A person may not allow a dog to defecate on “any lawn, yard, or any other private property whatever” without the consent of the owner or lawful occupant.
If responsible dog ownership suddenly becomes less convenient when you stop relying on everyone else’s property, public spaces, trash cans, and labor, then MAYBE you can see the negative impact you are putting on others.
NO Neighbors Properties
This includes our private lawns and our RECREATIONAL spaces.
Dogs do not have permission to enter or defecate on this property.
STOP asking the Gardners
Our gardeners are here to maintain public green space. Your dog damages the lawn. Our gardeners shouldn’t have to fix it.
STOP abusing our community resources
If the City provides dedicated pet-waste stations, use them. General public litter cans serve the entire community and shouldn't become de facto dog-waste bins simply because they're closer or more convenient.
YOUR Dog Your Responsibility
Its bathroom.
Its waste.
Its disposal.
Its impact.
We recognize that not everyone has the same circumstances. Some people with disabilities rely on service animals for essential assistance, and their needs and legal protections deserve respect. Our concern is not with disability or legitimate service-animal access, it is with unnecessary, inconsiderate use of other people’s property and shared spaces.
