Child falling into dog foul sparks call for crackdown

The woman said she and her sister they had noticed a lot of dog foul on the pavement outside Brandywell Stadium prior to the incident on Wednesday.

While returning from a stroll out the Line, one of her sister’s children, who were on bicycles, fell from her bike onto one pile of dog foul.

“It was just shocking and so disappointing,” she said.

“The wains were on bikes and we noticed a lot of dog dirt the whole way, every six or seven metres. It was really, really bad, the worst I had ever seen.

“On the way home, the wain fell off her bike straight on her face into dog dirt. She is only five and has just recently learned to ride her bike. It was all over her face and her hands from her trying to get up.”

The woman said her niece was “crying her eyes out”, and they had to use a hooded top to try to clean her up a bit until they got home. “It was a nightmare trying to get it off her face and hands,” she said.

She added that, during their outing, within the space of an hour she had witnessed three dog owners allowing their animals to foul without picking up after them.

Calling for more fines to be issued as a deterrent, the woman, who has asked not to be named, said: “It wouldn’t take much for this to be monitored. This is a residential area and it needs to be monitored more. There is a children’s play park there, too. I have a dog myself. It also doesn’t take an awful lot of effort to lift dog dirt.”

There have been several high profile campaigns launched by the local Council to try to promote responsible dog ownership and to highlight the dangers dog foul poses to children. But, despite over 800 dog foul bins being installed locally, a minority of pet owners are still refusing to clean up after their pets, the local Council heard recently.

Last week, Independent Councillor Sean Carr raised concerns about dog fouling after an elderly woman went to visit the grave of her son in the nearby City Cemetery - where dogs are prohibited - and found dog dirt on his grave.

A new report released since then has now confirmed that there have been over 370 complaints lodged with the local Council about dog fouling in the year to April 2020 - but only two fixed penalty notices were issued to owners for fouling over the course of the year.

Reacting to this, DUP Alderman Maurice Devenney said: “If those figures were in the hundreds, then the message would be going out quite clearly. The figures are very, very low. The poor dogs can’t read and it’s down to the dog owners who are responsible.”

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