The Public Park Double Standard

If you go to any public park, or walking trail, you’ll see dog owners everywhere with plastic grocery bags protruding out of their pockets… The purpose of these bags is clear. As a dog owner and civic minded citizen, it’s your responsibility to make sure you pick up your dog’s feces whenever it must “go” in a public space.

Full disclosure: I am NOT currently a dog owner, and don’t have an.. uhh..dog..in this fight.

Until today, I’ve been completely on board with this “rule,” and have come to appreciate what it means for one to essentially reverse roles with their pet. Think about it; in almost every other instance, your dog works, and is submissive for you. When you come home from work, it meets you at the door, tail wagging to make you feel good about being home. When you say sit, it sits. It speaks when you ask it to. When you say go outside, it happily walks through the doorway at your command. When you go out to a public space like a park however, the role is essentially reversed… You thought you were making this trip for your leisure, but when you’re the one grasping eagerly onto the leash, making sure to walk closely behind your dog with plastic bag in hand just waiting for your dog to do it’s business (because let’s face it, it’s not if your dog must go, it’s when) the question begs to be asked…Who’s walking whom?

You happily do it. You do it because you love your dog. You do it because you respect the public space. But most of all, you do it because you’re a decent human being and wouldn’t want someone else to see you not do it. I get it. And as I said before, I appreciate it. It certainly makes my day in the park easier to navigate — even if the sight of the bags forces me to think of what you will eventually do with said bags..

For the longest time, I used to think this was an unwritten rule. Sort of common courtesy for your fellow human being. This is after all more than one guy wanting to keep his Nike’s clean; at some point it turns into a public health issue. Within the last few years, I’ve grown to appreciate public parks and walking trails more and more, so naturally my awareness of such spaces has grown. Part of that awareness is I now actually read the signs posted, and to do my best to understand them. Most places I frequent now do have signs posted asking dog owners not only to keep their pets on a leash, but also asking the owners to “clean up” after their pets. Obviously we know what clean up means (they just can’t put on a sign “put the dog shit in a bag, and place the bag in your pocket” but you get the idea).

Which brings me to my point of the double standard…

Often times in the parks and trails I visit, I’ll see people on horseback. —Yes, I’m going there.

One thing to note is that people on horseback are almost always the most pleasant people you’ll ever meet. And why wouldn’t they be? They’re on top of an eight hundred pound horse in public, that’s pretty cool. I have never met or passed by someone on a horse who didn’t immediately smile and say hello. I’ve even had the opportunity to stop and pet a horse, and I must admit, at the front end, it’s a pleasant experience I enjoyed. In the rear however, something else entirely is happening… I bet they wouldn’t be so happy to see me after they read this..

I’ll start by making clear that nowhere in the park is there a sign directed to horse owners and riders instructing them that if they brought it in, they must take it out — fecally speaking, of course. But frankly, I’m getting tired of having to spot, avoid or step over piles of horse feces. Have you ever seen horse poop…? If you haven’t, imagine an eight hundred pound pit bull, and consequently the size bag you would need to bring if you were to take your oversized canine for a walk in the park. It’s comically large. By that same point, do the dog owners know about this injustice..? Do they know they’re being forced to pick up a handful of their dogs feces while horse owners are leaving forty pound piles of yesterday’s grains all over the trails for us to lose a shoe in?

Now, isn’t this a double standard we need to correct? How can we let this slide? By volume alone, this is an atrocity that we as a society must fix. Is there some equine lobby that pays off the department of the interior to make sure we just “forget” about what kind of a problem this is? Are we just lenient because to make this a rule, the horse owner would need to carry a shovel and large duffle bag at all times? I refuse to believe I’m the only one who sees this as a problem.

For us to shame dog owners and not horse owners is frankly well..shameful. I’ve heard the reasoning that “the rider is on the horse’s back, so they don’t know it’s happening..” which makes sense, but you can’t tell me that before you loaded the horse in the trailer you didn’t get a peek at the field the horse has been grazing in and notice the aircraft carrier sized piles your horse has been assembling for last few days and think “oh wow..let’s take this to a public space.”

I know this isn’t going to change, but it’s something we all need to think about. I’ve seen bags that hang from the horse’s nose/mouth filled with feed so it can have food on the go..maybe we can repurpose one of those for the other end..? Obviously I’m using comedy and hyperbole to make a point, but sooner rather than later, we need to straighten this shit out.