Cambridgeshire pet shop owner Piers Smart decided to take drastic action after becoming increasing annoyed with dog owners failing to clean up their animals' mess...
Piers (pictured right), who owns award-winning Scampers in Soham, has started to clean it up himself.
"I find it so infuriating. We walk our dogs around a local park most days and the amount of people not cleaning up after their dogs is horrendous," said Piers.
"People seem to think it's okay to simply leave their dog's poo on the path or on the grass verge – it's not.
"One thing that also astonishes me is people who go to the effort of picking up the poo but then throw the non-biodegradable bag with the mess inside it into the nearest bit of undergrowth. Again, it's simply not on."
Piers and wife Michelle have recently started to collect some of the bags of mess they find lying in the undergrowth to then put in the bins provided at the park by the district council.
Piers said: "We collected around 40 bags in an hour, which I find just unbelievable. Dog owners who don't clean up after their pets or who throw the poo bags into bushes are giving all us dog owners a bad name.
"It's also why more and more councils are banning dogs from open spaces in the UK, which isn't right. Dogs should be part of the community and it is down to us, as their owners, to be responsible.
"To me, it is just common sense. If they poo, pick it up and carry your poo bag with pride to the nearest bin."
Meanwhile, a Hemel Hempstead pet owner who was fed up with dog mess being left on pavements has been offering free poo bags to tackle the problem.
Lesley Marshall (above), from Butts End, Hemel Hempstead, said she used to find dog mess outside her house near Spring Fields on a daily basis.
She also put up posters addressed to dogs, asking them to remind owners to clear up after their animals.
Mrs Marshall said the problem "seemed to have disappeared" since she took the action at the end of last year.
"Hopefully people are getting the message," she said. "You do see people reading [the sign] and having a little chuckle as they go by."
Mrs Marshall, a dog owner herself, said she was "topping up" the supply of free bags by "about four" a week.
Lesley Marshall was fed up with the amount of dog mess near Spring Fields
"It's not too many, but they are being used, and that's good," she told BBC Three Counties Radio.
She won praise for her actions from Facebook users, who posted messages saying "Good on her."
Another user wrote: "Why do people think it's ok to leave their dogs poop on the pavement and grass! It's part of the responsibility of having a dog."
