The scenario has happened one too many times.
Kalyn Noe is hiking with her Australian terrier, Rylie, on a Santa Barbara trail when she sees a fellow dog owner look shiftily from side to side before walking away without picking up his or her pet’s poop.
She’s not alone in cringing at the idea, and has recently joined a countywide public awareness campaign to help “Close the Poop Loop” in the name of cleaner parks, creeks and beaches.
The city of Santa Barbara Creeks Division is spearheading the pilot program in partnership with Santa Barbara County and all eight of its cities: Santa Barbara, Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta, Lompoc, Guadalupe, Santa Maria and Solvang.
While dog waste may seem harmless, it’s actually one of the county’s biggest water contaminants.
One gram contains millions of bacteria, with enough harmful giardia, E.coli, salmonella, tapeworms and roundworms to close a beach, said Cameron Benson, Santa Barbara’s Creeks Division manager.
More parks and recreation areas than ever provide bags to clean up, but residents are either forgetting to pick up after dogs or intentionally leaving bags or piles of feces, he said.
That’s where the phrase “close the poop loop” comes in.
“When people don’t pick up dog poo it just pisses me off,” said Noe, a longtime dog owner and local teacher who formally pledged to the initiative online, which means a free dog-bone-shaped flashlight keychain of appreciation is headed to her Santa Barbara home.
“They think it just goes in the soil. I think a lot of people don’t realize the environmental aspect of it, the bacteria issue. People just think, ‘oh, it’s a right to have a dog.’ You have to take care of them. I think people sometimes lose sight of that fact.”
Nearly 200 others have also pledged and more then 40 program partners have put up posters or “Close the Poop Loop” signs, mainly pet shops and veterinarian clinics, Benson said.
The program began in February and will last through April, when organizers will measure the program’s success.
How they’ll do that, Benson said, is by comparing before-and-after poop counts at problem areas identified in each participating jurisdiction.
In Santa Barbara, the area of concern is Arroyo Burro Beach Park.
The rest include El Encanto Creek (Phelps ditch) in Goleta, Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve in Carpinteria, River Levee Trail in Santa Maria, Hans Christian Andersen Park in Solvang, Orcutt dog park in the county, west Main Street near Jack O’Connell Park in Guadalupe, the walking path along the V Street channel in Lompoc and along Highway 246 on the west end of Buellton.
Dog waste hasn’t yet been linked to human illness, Benson said, but it can be bad for tourism as well as health.
“This is a problem that goes far beyond Santa Barbara County,” Benson said. “We’re trying to let people know dog poop is harmful to water quality but remind them about the responsibility to clean up after their dog every time. That it really becomes part of the culture in Santa Barbara County to be a responsible pet owner.
“Frankly, nobody wants to be swimming around in water with dog poop floating. It’s just gross. Finish the job.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.