As a pet owner, I am a grateful to the powers that be in Bend for establishing doggie parks for our four-footed friends. I look at every time I take my dog to these parks as a privilege, and not a given. This means, as a responsible pet owner, it is my responsibility pick up after my dog when it succumbs to the call of nature, because my dog certainly cant.

The park district makes it quite easy for pet owners to clean up after their pets, even having plastic bag dispensers and poop bins available in which to place the offending matter. Still, it amazes me how much dog waste I have found left behind by irresponsible pet owners too repulsed to pick up after their own pets. I cannot understand why some pet owners find it repulsive, since it is no more repulsive than humans having to perform good cleaning hygiene after they have succumbed to the call of nature.

Perhaps pet parks should start charging pet owners who use these doggie parks a monthly users fee? In this way, the park district can hire poop patrol maintenance to clean up after those pet owners who refuse to do the dirty task. In a time of high unemployment, this would create a few jobs. Besides this, there are more serious concerns than just the stink or unsightliness of pet waste being left behind by inconsiderate poopaphobes.

There are many children who come to play with their dogs in these parks. When infected dog poop is deposited on the ground and not cleaned up, the eggs of certain roundworms and other parasites can linger in the soil for years! Anyone who comes into contact with that soil, walking barefoot, wearing flip flops, or any other means runs the risk of coming into contact with those eggs; especially your children and dogs.

The Environmental Protection Agency deemed pet waste a nonpoint source of pollution in 1991, which put poop in the same category as oil and toxic chemicals!

It has been estimated that a single gram of dog waste can contain 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, which are known to cause cramps, diarrhea, intestinal illness and serious kidney disorders in humans.

The EPA even estimates that two or three days worth of droppings from a population of about 100 dogs would contribute enough bacteria to temporarily close a bay and all watershed areas within 20 miles of it to swimming and fishing.

Dog feces are one of the most common carriers of heartworms, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, parvo, giardiasis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis and campypylobacteriosis. The names alone are enough to give nightmares!

Dog waste is not a good fertilizer either. It is toxic to plants, grass and water, among other things. Our EPA explains that the decay of our pets waste actually creates nutrients for weeds and algae that grow in the waterways. As these organisms thrive on your dogs droppings, they overtake the water in a Little Shop of Horrors-esque manner, and limit the amount of light that can penetrate the waters surface. As a result, oxygen levels in the water decrease, and the fish and seafood we eat can be asphyxiated, EPA says. Think of those dog parks right along the Deschutes River and the many biped swimmers. Perhaps we should consider a fee for the carbon emissions for pet owners and their pets waste.

I say pet owners of Bend, unite! Let us all go green and not contribute to global warming by leaving our pets carbon emission poop prints behind! Dont be party poopers.