Almost every evening, weather permitting, a couple goes
for a long walk in their neighborhood. They regularly stroll past several areas
where neighbors walk their dogs -- a city park and a boardwalk along a harbor
among them.
The city parks department has posted signs indicating
that there are fines for not cleaning up after dogs. To assist with the latter,
the city has provided free plastic bags that are attached to posts in both the
park and along the boardwalk.
Increasingly, the couple has noticed that dog walkers are
not always mindful of cleaning up. Most recently, the couple came upon a dog
owner who standing by her pet along the boardwalk. They acknowledged one
another by saying hello. Then the dog owner asked, "You wouldn't have any
plastic bags on you, would you?"
The couple, who were not walking a dog and don't own a
dog, were not in the habit of carrying plastic bags with them. They did point
out to the dog owner that there were free plastic bags attached to a post about
100 yards down the boardwalk. They indicated exactly where the bags were
located, then continued on their way, leaving the dog owner to retrieve her own
bag.
When they circled back, they noticed that the dog owner
was gone, but her pet's waste remained.
"What should we have done?" asks one member of
the couple. "Should we have offered to go get her a bag?"
Knowing that the owner didn't clean up after her pet,
they no wonder if they should report her to the city parks department at the
address listed on the sign about fines for those who don't clean up. The
challenge is they'd never seen the owner or her pet before, have no idea where
the woman lives, and wouldn't know where to begin to find her in their
densely-populated city neighborhood.
Some people living in apartment complexes have grown so
tired of similar situations that they've begun to require that dog owners
submit samples of their pets' DNA on file so culprits can be caught. But the
strolling couple's neighborhood keeps no such records. As near as they can
tell, no effort is made to enforce the city parks department's regulation about
cleaning up pet waste. So what's the right thing to do?
It's certainly not the strolling couple's obligation to
pick up after someone else's dog. They also should not be expected to carry a
stash of plastic bags in their pockets to supply dog owners who forgot to bring
their own.
The right thing is for dog owners to clean up after their
own pets. The strollers were correct to point out where the city-supplied free
bags were located. If they want to go a step further, they could notify the
parks department and ask if it's possible to provide the bags at more
locations.
Ultimately, though, the right thing is for the dog owners
to be responsible and for the city to enforce its posted laws. Regardless of it
not being their responsibility, from here on out, the couple plans to take a
few plastic bags along on future walks, just in case!
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School.
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
4 comments:
Carrying a baggie makes sense. Cleaning it is a little much.
Banning dogs may be an idea.
Alan O
Greenfield, Ma
What we learn in today's problem is that, when going about our business or leisure lives, we find that our fellow men (and women) have, like the rest of society, in too many examples, become poor representatives of the human race. We read in our daily newspapers and hear on the news & TV the extent to which today's fellow humans have receded to what we may nearly feel are "low class" in too many instances of everyday life. Today's "poop" example is perhaps one of he lesser important, yet one of the annoyances of life. I cannot see how any guidelines could be set up that would have changed the person about whom Jeffrey has written today.
Charlie Seng
The dog walker asked for a plastic bag only as a faux concern because she and her pooch were “caught in the act.” I bet she doesn’t, er, give a crap all the other times.
Anonymous is exactly correct: the dog walker who was waiting for her pooch to deposit his poop was blowing smoke and waiting for the couple to pass by. If they see her again, offer to hold the dog's leash while she runs down to the post with the extra bags.
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