An Irish Reddit user has explained how their evening walk with their pet dog was ruined - after another dogowner allowed their pup to go to the toilet in the middle of their garden, without picking it up.
Officially, it is an offence to let a dog under your control foul a public place. If it does happen the person in charge of the dog must remove the faeces and dispose of them in a suitable, sanitary manner.
But this was not the case for this particular person on Sunday night.
They took to the subreddit page r/Ireland to explain the situation.
The post, entitled: "Just found some "lady" allowing her dog to s**t in my garden and apparently I'm the a**hole because I was angry" has already seen hundreds of comments.
The user explained: "Living in the midlands, I was walking my dog with my daughters for her final poo of the evening before bed.
"On the way back we noticed a lady walking in front of us with her dog and I told my girls to slow down because my dog is not the friendliest with other dogs.
"We notice her turning into our garden ahead of us and her dog had a s**t. As we approached as she was leaving I shouted 'excuse me can you pick up that s**t out of my garden', she shouted back 'don't shout at me I can't help where he s**ts', I said 'well can't you pick it up', she finished with 'I don't appreciate you're tone and you're threatening me now'.
"I was left with my kids in shock... The f**k?... She's caught in the wrong and all of a sudden a victim!!!"
Other users were full of suggestions for what to do.
One suggested: "Find out where she lives and post it through her letterbox", with a second thinking similar by adding "Shmere it all over her front door and windows dirty protest shtyle".
While a third joked: "Sadly, I cannot control where I poo. It would be a shame if I knew her address."
If a dog fouls a public place, and the owner doesn’t remove the faeces, you can make a complaint to the District Court under litter laws. Before you do this, you must inform the dog owner by completing a form available from the Dog Control Unit of your local authority.
Owners/handlers who do not dispose of dog faeces in a responsible manner may receive an on-the-spot fine of €150. Failure to pay that could lead to a maximum fine of €3,000.
