I always figure that they just didn’t want to carry it around, and meant to pick it up on the way back home, but they forgot and returned home by a different route.
Surely the thought occurs to them when they get home, Oh, poop!I forgot to pick up the bag of poop! Where the heck did I leave it?!? and they feel a great feeling of regret.
But I’m not a dog owner, so I can’t really say what goes on in their minds. I just like to imagine that most people have good intentions but are forgetful.
I know at least one cause of this is people intend to pick it up on the way back, but forget. They’re trying to avoid carrying the bag for the entire walk. I’m sure there are other reasons, but I’ve witnessed my sister leaving a bag on the side of the road for this reason, and she’s told me she sometimes forgets about it.
I am a dog owner, and I don’t know what goes on their minds. There was a period of time when someone would hide the same pastel branded poop bags in different spots on my street, containing the poop of a small dog. I never figured out who it was, but since it happened several times a week, I don’t think they intended to ever come back.
Grrr on your sister. So you have to carry it for a few minutes? What’s the big deal? I have always had dogs, and I always carry the bag for the whole walk. I thing the “forgetting” is very convenient.
As well as the “bag-and-forget” crowd we have some person who leaves whole bagel lying around. They used to just drop them on the parkway, but this year they have been hiding them under plants. My dog loves a stale, moldy bagel like few other things and will get damn near the whole thing in her mouth before I even know what she has been sniffing under that bush. Bagel aren’t even good food for birds and small mammals, so the entire escapade is a bad idea.
I live in a small apartment community in Los Angeles that has a lot of dogs and the apartment complex has several stations with free dog bags and trash cans that are emptied regularly. People seem to be pretty good at using them. I rarely see stray poop. Maybe hard to implement for a city but I bet if you built the infrastructure people would use it. Of course it costs money but I’m sure so does cleanup and issue if these “passports”…
Hiding would be an improvement from what made the news in my area. Folks were tying poop bags to a chain link fence in a county park. I don’t know if it was because they couldn’t find a trash can, or what.
It’s like, I absolutely meant to take my headphones, phone, 10 lb. lime plus some for use on the remnants, and exactly one bag plus the sideslung bag for the lime and poop bag, but… And then comes the day I’m presented with one Kareem El-Jabbar handful.