This was a weird thought I had walking the streets of Shrewsbury the other day (ironically, not whilst on the toilet).
White dog poo
Incidentally, but not unrelated, until I moved to Shrewsbury I hadn’t been particularly bothered by dog poo on the streets (at least not since adulthood). I had not noticed much in the way of dog poo on the streets of the three places I’d lived in over the ten years prior to coming here: Japan, Oxford and Charlbury. In fact, I was quite shocked when we moved here at the sheer quantity (not so much quality, that relates to the white-poo thought) of dog poo on the streets of Shrewsbury. Do Shropshire’s dogs poo when the urge takes them whereas Oxfordshire ones wait until they get home? Or are the owners to blame? Do Oxfordshire owners carry those handy little poo bags whereas Shrosphire owners don’t bother? I suspect a mixture of the former and latter. However, I digress. Today’s thought is about the quality of poo, not the quantity.
No poo on these streets
I remember dog poo featuring in my childhood quite a lot (we always had a dog, who pooed, and I suspect the streets of Stafford in the 1970s and 1980s were similarly plagued by sporadically dumped excrement as the streets of Shrewsbury are in the 2010s). Dog poo is something I remember seeing, studying, stepping in (embarrassingly) and stepping over (fortunately). Dog poo, was sometimes white. Now, in Shrewsbury at least, dog poo is always brown.
Why?
I’ve asked the Internet. The Internet claims that it is to do with there being less bone marrow in the diets of dogs. Less bone marrow equals less calcium. Calcium is white and crumbly. So less calcium equals less white and crumbly poo.
That was easy.
I just need to get the dog owners of Shrewsbury to CLEAN UP THEIR BROWN SLOPPY POO PLEASE!
If the owners won’t do it…
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