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  Commentary:
  Opinion
  When your dog poops, scoop — or else
  By Susan D. Young
  My Word columnist |
  Mar 03, 2017 at 4:50 PM
  Read and heed!
  We're all sick of reading about politics, so let's focus on a more pressing issue — dog poop. (I know what you're thinking, not much difference). Orlando City Code requires dog owners to pick up after their pets. The city's flyer, "Love the dog, hate the doo. Stop Poo-llution" states, "It's a nuisance, and leads to water pollution no matter where you live."
  A citation comes with an $84 fine for failing to remove the poo from public property or another person's private property.
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  Living across from one of Orlando's downtown lakes, I've observed many dog owners walking their pets, some with disposal bags, others without. The larger lakes have plastic-bag receptacles that provide free products for dog owners to pick up the excrement and dispose of it. Ours is a tiny lake, however, and requests to the city resulted in a sign, explaining the ordinance, but no free bags.
  After contacting the city about our ongoing problem, I was told it is Orange County's jurisdiction to issue citations for abusers. It was recommended that I take a photograph of the offender, follow the perpetrator home, and provide the county with an address so a citation could be issued. Yeah, right, like that's going to happen -- maybe if I were 30 years younger, a man, and 6 feet tall. Perhaps confrontation would result in a polite conversation about the responsibility of pet ownership, but somehow I cannot imagine that scenario going well these days.
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  Susan D. Young (Orlando Sentinel)
  Designing my own sign, I planted it in the grass leading down to the lake. Several looky-loos took note of the message and ignored it; others walked right past it without a second glance. The next morning, I found it thrown down by the lake's edge, so it must have gotten someone's attention. I persisted by putting the sign back the next few days. Lo and behold, most of the dog-walking traffic has disappeared. Did I possibly hit a nerve? Or did the miscreants move on to the next lake, hoping no one will call them on their dung-filled indiscretions?
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  One might think doggy doo-doo acts as a natural fertilizer, adding nutrients to the landscape. According to the city, "The pollutants include pathogens, naturally toxic material and ammonia. When pet waste is left behind, it can end up in our lakes and other surface waters, it decomposes using up oxygen and releases its pollutant load. It is carried to surrounding surface waters by storm water (rainwater) runoff."
  Regardless of the environmental impact, cleaning up is just the right thing to do. As much as you love your pet, no one wants to look at, smell or step in the ordure it leaves behind.