Pet owners are leaving more dog poo on the streets of South Ayrshire during lockdown, the council has warned.
Council patrols to check for dog fouling have stopped as staff concentrate on running essential services during the Covid-19 crisis.
Workers are no longer cleaning the streets.
Some walkers go to the bother of putting it in bags only to leave it discarded. Many don’t even do that - abandoning the dog mess on the pavement.
Ayrshire Post photographs show dog waste in Ayr at Newton shore, Heathfield Road and Prestwick Road among other areas.
Appealing to dog walkers to be responsible, councillor Philip Saxton said: “Don’t take advantage of the situation. We have officers working on priorities. We can’t monitor everything. “We are relying on the public.”
The Labour politician, responsible for housing and community wellbeing, added: “People are taking dogs out more often for walks but they should be picking up the waste.”
The council said in a statement: “Sadly it has become evident that there is an increasing amount of dog waste and bags of dog waste being discarded on our footpaths and public areas.
“Families, including children, enjoying their daily exercise e.g. walking or cycling, during this time are being exposed to risk of further disease and infection from the dumped dog waste.
“This, as well as being a risk to children, could potentially put additional strain on on our already stretched NHS.”
Heaps of discarded rubber gloves have also been thrown away.
The council added: “We have no capacity at the current time to carry out patrols for dog fouling, nor are our waste management colleagues able to arrange street cleans.”
