Picture: Eamonn Keogh
LITTER wardens from Kerry County Council are to target a number of popular walking routes in Killarney in the coming weeks in an attempt to clampdown on irresponsible dog owners who don’t clean up the mess after their pets soil public areas.
A spokesperson for the local authority said it is a difficult area to enforce and dog owners need to take more responsibility for their animals.
The council was responding to Cllr Donal Grady who called for a full-time litter warden to be appointed in the area.
“Dog fouling is increasing and it is a serious issue,” he said.
Kerry County Council said it already has three full-time litter wardens working in the four municipal district areas and they are supported by seven traffic wardens who also have responsibility for enforcing any breaches of the litter legislation.
“Ongoing dog foul awareness campaigns have been carried out by Kerry County Council in the last number of years. This is a very problematic area to enforce,” a council official stated.
It has recently been suggested that dogs being walked in public areas should be fitted with nappy-type devices with a proposal that a smaller version of the sanitary devised attached to jaunting car horses be considered.
That idea was previously proposed by former councillor Niall O’Callaghan who said, as far back as February 2012, that a disposable nappy-style system should be implemented.
“The town has gone to the dogs and I’m not trying to be funny about it. It’s a very serious problem at this stage,” O’Callaghan said at the time.
“If nappies worked for the jarvey horses then they should be looked at for dogs. The device doesn’t have to be anything elaborate as a simple bag attached to the right place would suffice,” he added.
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