‘Disgusting’ car park mess as town goes to the dogs
VISITORS to Dromore could be forgiven for thinking the town has gone to the dogs, if the car park next to the Gospel Hall at Cross Lane is anything to go by.
It was there recently that poultry show patrons, some with children in tow, were confronted by a minefield of dog mess lining three sides of the car park, which lies to the left of the Gospel Hall as you approach from the front.
The grass strip at the bottom of the rear wall was particularly bad, but elsewhere the fringes of the car park were likewise liberally peppered with mess.
The car park has clearly been in use as a dog toilet - whether for one or more animals - for some time, with comparitively fresh deposits to be found alongside mould-covered mounds.
Ulster Unionist Councillor Olive Mercer said the best word to sum up the scene was “disgusting”. She added, “It really has been an unofficial dog toilet.”
Mrs. Mercer was herself among those to attend the recent poultry show and alerted council officers to the problem, but it was visitors to the town who pointed out to her the appalling state of the car park.
“There were people there from Markethill,” she said, “people from Ballymena, in fact people from throughout Northern Ireland, and they had children with them.
Aside from being unsightly and making a poor impression on visitors to town, the unbelieveable volume of dog mess may have presented a health risk, particularly given the length of time some of it had been there.
Toxocara canis is a parasite - a worm - that lives inside dogs; the sticky eggs are invisible to the naked eye but can be picked up from, among other things, soil or grass. Fresh dog droppings are said not to present a direct danger as the eggs must mature outside the animal for several weeks before becoming infective, but mature eggs can remain viable in the ground for some time, hence the particular danger to children, who routinely roll on the ground in playing fields, parks and elsewhere.
If swallowed, toxocara eggs will not develop into adult worms in humans but can hatch into larvae that will travel around the body – usually causing no problems, but, rarely, settling in sensitive tissue such as the retina of the eye, where they may cause damage or even blindness.
Undeniably one of the worst examples of the impact of irresponsible dog owners locally, the Cross Lane discovery is nevertheless the latest in a long line of complaints about dog mess in Dromore, where efforts to tackle the problem are ongoing.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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