I WAS recently walking with a dog through a beautiful isolated Dorset wood when I noticed that the wood had 20-30 dog poo bags hanging from the trees.

I have noticed that there appear to be dog owners who think that by simply putting the poo in a bag it then allows them to discard it anywhere they wish. I notice poo bags left beside paths, seats, in trees and pavements.

What is going through the minds of these people? In fact it’s far worse to bag it and carelessly discard it than for dog waste to rapidly decay naturally within flower beds or woodland.

Discarded poo bags in the countryside also kill horses and deer. Sometimes I end my walk carrying perhaps 5 bags of carelessly discarded poo.

Incredibly some of the dog poo bags sold by major retailers are not even biodegradable and some sold as biodegradable do not really degrade.

As a test I placed a number of these bags in my own compost bin two years ago. I have just examined them, they are surrounded by beautiful compost but the bags are good as new showing no decay, yet these bags were sold as biodegradable.

Dog owners please only use bags marked as rapidly compostable and also we should all educate any people we see discarding dog poo bags in wrong places.

ROBERT WILSON

Ravine Road, Bournemouth

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