Friday 6 May 2011

Clean it up!

I have not written many posts from the North Coast recently as I have been spending time at our home in the South. It's been a way of detaching and preparing for the next stage. The Curate and I are about to leave the North Coast to live near the moor and nearer my work. We have enjoyed the beautiful coastline and living right on the beach. Our dogs love their daily walks on the wide open sands and meeting all the other dogs.These are very sociable occasions as, during the week, the regulars brave all kinds of weather to exercise their dogs on the sands. 
But how do I know it is the weekend or the holidays when I am up at the North Coast? It is the increased amount of doggy bags left at the entrance to the beach, in the car park or half buried in the sand dunes. I mean doggy bags full of doggy c***. These plastic bags are left for all other beach users to stumble upon. The Curate regularly picks up bags left at the beach entrances by owners who are not prepared to carry the bags to the dog bins provided.

Other ways of not being seen with a bag full of poo - is to throw the full plastic bag into the hedges around the footpaths. This is more noticeable in winter when bare trees are often decorated with a bag (which comes in a variety of colours) that has got caught on a branch.
The cheap bags are not biodegradable and so the trees can be festooned for weeks until the wind shreds the plastic and deposits the contents below. In summer they are more quickly concealed by the brambles and leaves.  Spot the doggy bag in this picture .
The plastic is a risk to other wild life and very unsightly.



It is at the weekend and the holidays when things get really bad. Some people, visiting by car, don' t want to put these bags into their cars and the dog bins are a few hundred metres away on the roadside.Neither will they walk the extra distance. They leave the bags lying in the car park or tucked away somewhere. Some people do try to remember and I have seen cars driving away with little full plastic bags hanging from their tow bars or windscreen wipers.

Our beaches are for everyone. The wide open sands, which are washed clean by the tides and cleaned by our local tractor driver on a daily basis, are a wonderful natural playground. With limited access to recreational areas, it is fantastic to be allowed to exercise our dogs on the beach. On sunny days,I see children digging in the dry sand and sliding down the sand dunes. They  are having a wonderful time.  But I also see this ........


      and this.......                   
and this......
 (these pictures were all taken on 
yesterday's walk)


Respect our beaches - so that everyone can enjoy them,

5 comments:

Perpetua said...

That's dreadful! You do wonder why people bother to carry the bags and pick up the poo if they can't be bothered to do the job properly and put them in the bin. Sigh.....

(P.S. Something odd has happened to one of your paragraphs and it can only be read in Google Reader.)

Thecurateswife said...

Hello, not a pleasant subject to blog about - I wish people would think about what they are doing.

Thanks for the prompt about paragraph - not sure I have solved it yet.

Shirlwin said...

Lol, I copied your 'long sentence' and pasted it to make it easier to read. Perhaps a Ranger on patrol every so often? A fine for those who can't be bothered to tidy up after their pets?
Emu oil is supposed to be good for aches in joints, though not athritis, itchy skin, but not inflamed eczema, and burns if applied immediately. I haven't tried it!

Thecurateswife said...

Hi, local volunteers are supposed to patrol the beaches ( I have never seen one - but I walk further away from the road). In the time we have been here I have never seen anyone actually drop a bag but the bags don't grow themselves so people must be pretty furtive about it. The Curate did offer a bag to one lady whose dog appeared to be performing - only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that the dog was not, and that she had plenty to clear up after it if it did! He will study more carefully before approaching anyone again!!

Jane and Lance Hattatt said...

Hello:
What you highlight here is one of the major downsides to some of the remarkably lovely beaches which surround these islands. But, if not that, then plastic bags, which may contain anything, thrown out of car windows, or simply dropped, anywhere in the countryside.

Oh dear, it is all somewhat depressing for if it is not this, then it is crisp packets, empty drink cans, cigarette ends, sweet wrappers.....!
We should not have started. Next we'll be writing of graffiti, wanton vandalism, et al. Forgive us, your post has carried us away.