5-year-old Evan Overfield from Celbridge in Co Kildare was hospitalised just before Christmas with a severe bacterial infection. Evan's mother Kris told Barry Lenihan on Today with Claire Byrne that her son had been playing on his local green and accidentally touched some dog poo while playing. 

"He had severe diarrhoea, was complaining of a lot of pain in his tummy and by the time we got to hospital, he was vomiting as well. And he was there for four nights." 

Initially, Kris and the doctors didn't know what was wrong with Evan, but after a number of tests, they discovered that he had a campylobacter infection. It usually comes from under-cooked food, but as Evan's whole family had eaten the same meals and hadn't got sick, the source of the infection must have been something else. Then the doctors told Kris that another common source of the infection is dog faeces and she remembered Evan playing on the green and it all made sense. And Kris was not happy about it: 

"I was pretty upset. I don't like it to begin with, and I think it's pretty disgusting, but I didn't know it could make my child this sick. It's just very upsetting to think that people are so irresponsible that they would put others in a situation this dangerous." 

As Kris said to Barry, not only is dog poo a litter issue and an environmental issue, but it's also a health and safety issue: it can make people sick. So, why do people not dispose of their pets' poo responsibly? And has the pandemic resulted in more dog fouling than ever? Barry visited Shanganagh Park in Shankill, Co Dublin, where people agreed that there was far more dog poo than before the pandemic restrictions and even when they do clean up after their pet, people seem to be more willing to hang poo bags from railings or throw them into the long grass. And the laws covering pets, Barry told Claire, leave owners liable to a €150 spot fine, if they fail to pick up after their animals. Barry did something of a deep dive into the figures to see how many fines had been handed out since the pandemic restrictions came into force: 

"According to figures supplied by 26 of the country's 29 local authorities, just 47 fines for dog fouling were issued across all of Ireland in 2020. This is despite the vast majority of councils confirming to me an increase in dog litter in their area since the pandemic." 

Barry also discovered that 40% of the fines handed out to dog owners last year remain unpaid and half of Ireland's councils didn't issue a single fine for dog fouling. So, enforcement is obviously an issue. But some county councillors Barry heard from may have a very 21st century solution: 

"Some councillors in Louth and Mayo want to use dog poo DNA testing. Now this technology has been successful in Spain, where, in one village, excrement was returned to owners as lost property in a box." 

That's the sort of solution that would have many people applauding and, probably, a sizeable number of dog owners grimacing. 

You can hear Barry's full report for the Today programme by going here. 

Niall Ó Sioradáin