1. Dog poop is NOT fertilizer for your lawn and shrubs. Due to their high-protein diet, dog waste is highly acidic and will actually burn your grass creating brown patches.
2. Just one gram of dog waste can contain as many as 23 million fecal coliform bacteria , which can seep into groundwater and spread salmonella and giardia. This poses a hazard to your pets, your family, and your landscape.
3. Your lawn mower does not chop it up and make it go away. In fact, it makes it worse by spreading it around your yard in smaller pieces where you, your children, and your pets continue to step in it and then bring it into your home.
4. Dog fecal matter is a major contributor to storm water pollution. One out of three households have at least one dog, and all that dog poop left out in the rain eventually liquifies and ends up in our storm drains, which in most metropolitan areas means it also ends up in our lakes and streams.
5. Nearly 20 years ago the EPA classified dog waste as a dangerous pollutant in the same category as toxic chemicals and oil. Not really a great thing to leave in your back yard, or have flowing into our storm drains.
6. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirms that hookworms, ringworms, tapeworms and Salmonella can be spread by contact with infected dog waste. When dog poop is left to decay, after a long time (it can take over one year for dog waste to decompose) the poop may “disappear,” but the eggs from these parasites can linger for years in the soil – leaving your family and your pets vulnerable to serious infection.