Shropshire Star

Poo patrol: Family take action over Wrekin dog mess

A father has hit out at dog walkers who dump bags full of animal faeces at a Shropshire beauty spot.

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Richard Jones' children William, seven, Ania, six, and Jack, nine, with their haul of litter

Richard Jones said he was horrified by the amount of rubbish and bagged-up dog mess on The Wrekin when he took his three young children for a walk yesterday.

He was so disgusted that his children have now started carrying out weekly litter patrols at beauty spots around the county.

Mr Jones, who lives in Shrewsbury, said his children Ania, six, William, seven, and Jack, nine, collected a large bag of litter on The Wrekin in the space of just half an hour.

He said they now planned to spend every Wednesday of the school holidays picking up litter on hills around Shropshire, including Caen Caradoc on Wednesday next week.

"My children and I walked up the Wrekin and were horrified by the amount of litter and, more disgustingly, bagged-up dog muck," said Mr Jones, a serving army colonel.

"The children are genuinely upset about the danger of pollution to the planet.

"We particularly cannot understand people who pick up dog muck in a bag and then dump the bag on the path.

"Surely that's even worse than leaving it there, it's adding to the pollution. At least the dog much eventually degrades."

He said his seven-year-old son William was particularly environmentally aware.

"Obviously I didn't let the children handle the dog mess, but they did go round picking up the litter."