One of my biggest pet peeves has always been irresponsible dog owners who casually let their dog drop a pile of steaming shit on the street and then not cleaning it up.
What on Earth makes people think this is okay? Do they just not have any molecule of decency and consideration?
Of course I myself just stepped on a pile of shit, at the bar station in Trung Liệt.
Now this didn’t ruin my mood that much. I simply cleaned my foot and continued with the workout. Most people consider it only slightly inconvenient, if even funny.
I get how someone stepping on shit can be a funny sight. But I can’t help but think about how reckless and dangerous this shit (pun intended) is.
What if someone just got formally dressed up and are on their way to a job interview? Now they step on shit and get their shoe and their mood ruined. And who would allow a person smeared with shit into their office? Now their job prospect is ruined.
It’s not simply unsightly or inconvenient — fecal matter can be a massive health hazard. What if a kid plays, touches the poop, and touches his food later? That’s how E. coli gets transmitted!
And imagine if someone has a cut on their arm, and they slip and fall on the feces. That is a recipe for a nasty and potentially life-threatening infection.
Just last year I had the surgery on my big toe. If this had happened to me back then, I would have had no other choice but to rush to an emergency room to clean up the wound. Who knows what dangerous bacteria hide in that little piece of shit?
Some dog owners say they can’t pick up the poop because they can’t follow their dog everywhere, which I think is a bullshit excuse. If at home you are free to let your beloved pet run around and spray shit all over your own house. But when in public, your dog becomes a shitting machine and you’d better keep an eye on it at all times.
What To Do
I’ve thought hard about what to do about this. Sadly, for every 10 responsible dog owners there will always be that one inconsiderate douchebag.
If I ever saw an owner let their dog poop and don’t clean it up, I would immediately confront them. No question asked. Of course it’s not worth getting into a fight over, so I won’t yell or insult them or anything — but you can be sure I won’t be soft.
There are people who have taken the approach of shaming these dickheads. They take pictures of the crime in action so that the perpetrator cannot deny it, print the picture out, and let the entire community know. Brilliant solution.
Honestly if I lived next to a public playground or a park where unattended dog shit was a common occurrence, I would absolutely spend an afternoon with a zoom lens and take pictures of these assfaces. And then I would gladly print out 100 flyers with their face on and plaster the flyers everywhere. Some people need to be publicly humiliated to learn their lesson.