Litter hurts dogs

As the readers of my blog know, I am a dog that is fortunate enough to travel all over the world, or at least that part of it that Dad calls the United States of America. I’m old enough to know that this freedom is a good one, because so many of my fellow canine’s are fenced in a backyard or chained to a post and rarely see more than the area around their backyard for their entire life. So, I am grateful for this. This gives me a different perspective on my life than a typical dog writing his blog. They don’t see everything I do.

Are humans really this disrepectful of their dens? Litter at a Florida beach. Some party!

Today, litter is on my mind. Not litters of little puppies (those days are long past), but trash. Pure and simple trash. Stuff that no one wants so they throw it hoping to be distant from it and not have to decide what to do with it again. It is all around you. Being a dog, my nose is much closer to the ground than most humans so I see it up close (I do see little humans crawling on the ground like a dog though). Their trash falls to the ground and is much more a part of my world than a humans world. I get to smell it (most smells are not those that a dog would like), I get to step on and in it, and I get to swallow it, due in part to the curious nature of us dogs. Further, in spite of opinions by humans to the contrary, it spoils my sense of beauty. Yes, dogs have a sense of beauty and trash messes that up. I enjoy a lovely babbling stream and prefer not to have little pieces of those ugly white sticks that humans put in their mouths and burn bobbing along the stream or stuck between the rocks along the stream banks.

This is NOT the litter I'm talking about. These guys are hurt by human litter.

Being a dog that spends most of his time in RV parks, I see a lot of trash. Not so much as to cause undue attention to humans mind you, but little pieces here and there. Some of the stuff my nose is drawn to includes lots of soda cans (smashed, or whole, or crinkled), brightly colored wrappers from candy bars (some of these do smell good), lots of crumpled bags, pieces of paper and cardboard of all shapes and sizes, old shoes and human underwear (phew!), plastic bags of all colors, cups from McDonalds, Burger King and others human eating places, sharp metal bottle caps, beer bottles (broken and whole), fishing hooks, rusty nails, sticky stuff that nobody would know what it is, discarded pieces of rotting food , and lots of those little white sticks that humans burn in their mouths (with and without little brown things on the end.) Now I’m as curious as the next dog and often will sample some of the more interesting of these discarded morsels. I gag on some, swallow some and often have a delayed reaction to others as I lose all my food and the offending morsel of decayed food. My nose is supposed to tell me what is OK to eat and what is not, but it doesn’t always work right. Sometimes I’ll step on a broken bottle and cut my pad and that really hurts.

I sniff around a lot and find a lot of litter. Sometimes I step on it and hurt myself.

Dad gets really upset with litter too. He is a photographer and most people do not like to see photos of lovely hillsides with discarded beer bottles, white fast-food cups or anything else that nature herself has not made directly appear in the photo. Dad also respects what nature has grown. He says that it has taken years and sometimes thousands of years to make a beautiful scene and only a few minutes for a human to mess it up. We don’t understand what makes humans want to spoil it by throwing their unwanted STUFF in such beautiful areas.

Some humans toss their unwanted bottles anywhere and others break them so I step on them and cut myself.

Dad was wondering WHO it was that threw the litter on the ground, especially the candy wrappers. He thought it was the kids. Maybe they haven’t been taught yet that it is bad to do that. After all there are a lot of things a young humans has to learn. Not to litter is just one and I’m sure their Moms can’t teach them everything at once. The other day while Dad and I were walking around the RV park here in Chocowinity, North Carolina, we saw an example of WHO was doing it. First we saw two young boys unwrapping a candy bar. Dad was sure they were going to throw the wrappers on the ground, but NO.. they both walked at least 50 dog steps back to a trash can and put it in that. A little bit later we were walking around the lake here and two older men passed us in a golf cart. Immediately one of them threw a candy wrapper on the ground and continued on to find a spot to fish. Dad picked it up. Boy, were we surprised! Maybe it’s not always those kids! Some humans just haven’t learned much in all their many years I guess.

Little white sticks lie all around RV parks and roadsides. Can't humans swallow them or put them in trays?

We stop at a lot of REST STOPS along the highways during our RVing trips. I like to sniff and pee and Dad likes to rest his tired muscles. Wow, this is a treasure trove of trash. There are piles of paper and cans and all sorts of stuff against fences, at the edges of forests and along the gutter. Sometimes we see a pile of many already burned white sticks and ash in the parking lot where someone dumped their ashtray onto the ground. What’s strange is that there are trash cans all over the place at most rest stops, but some humans decide that it’s just too much trouble to walk a few steps and put it there. Instead, us dogs get to step in and on it, sometimes cutting our pads, and sometimes getting poisoned by the bad stuff that we find and with a typical curiosity, sample. We also find lots of examples at rest stops and even at WalMart’s where people have left puddles of sticky black oil for me to step in. That really gets Mom mad when I come back to the RV!

Cans are the most I see. You'd think that humans would pick them up for the money they bring!

Even in really pretty places, like Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, there are often beer cans and bottles, water bottles, McDonalds cups, and straws and much more scattered along the roadway. When we are at RedRock RV park near Island Park, Idaho, Dad gets on his Segway sometimes and we go out together picking up the trash along the road. Then Dad can photograph it.

Even my arch enemy the squirrel is hurt by eating harmful litter.

Oh, yes, one more thing! Us dogs aren’t guiltless in this matter either. Some of my canine friends poop right on the trail so that I have to step around it or in it and Dad sometimes steps on it. Most humans don’t like to step in a dog’s poop. So, please do like I do and poop in the high weeds at the side of the forest or make sure your human picks it up and puts it in a trash can or buries it. It’s very easy to train him to do so.

Please don't litter. It hurts my feet, and sometimes I get poisoned by rotting food. Just pick it up and throw it in the trash can. Thanks!

I think that humans should know that their mother will not come along the road after them and pick up the trash they throw out of the car window. She is back home, fixing their dinner, so please let your friends know to stow their litter in the trash cans, their little white sticks of burning plant in their car’s ashtray and please help to pick up the litter you see that other thoughtless humans have discarded. You might save a dog’s life one day, and make the land more beautiful for others and that would be really nice of you.

Arf,

Reggie