HRM launches pilot program encouraging dog owners to pick up after their pets
Posted Aug 12, 2019 09:56:12 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Halifax Regional Municipality has embarked on a pilot program in an effort to maintain safe water in two Dartmouth area lakes.
The project is called Canines for Clean Water and is focusing on Lake Banook and Lake Micmac, both having shown high levels of canine e.coli in testing.
A page on the city's website includes a pledge form that dog owners are encouraged to sign, along with some information on some of the issues caused by dog droppings and their effect on water. Dog owners are also reminded to bring along a plastic bag to pick up after their pets, and if they forget there are bag dispensers at both lakes.
Residents are also being reminded to properly dispose of the bags once they are used.
HRM is reminding people that animal waste is toxic, the bags are disposed of as garbage, no other circumstances. They are not organics or fertilizer and pet waste does not go into the green cart.
They also have another warning about choosing the right kind of bags, adding that bags marketed as biodegradable or compostable are not acceptable, these types of bags are never accepted at municipal compost facilities and must go into the garbage.
