[yerself]

For all you dog crap aficionados. From the BBC Cumbria website:

Not so smelly poo facts

It is estimated that there are 7.4 million dogs in the UK.

Together, they produce up to 1,000 tonnes of faeces everyday. One dog is estimated to produce between 100-200 g of faeces and some 0.25-1.25 litres of urine each day.

ENCAMS, the charity that runs the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, calculated that around 60 percent of the dog owners in the UK (around 4.6 million adults) ignore their dog’s mess and leave it in public places for others to step in it.

Toxocara T. canis is transmitted by dogs and foxes and Toxocara T.catis is transmitted by cats. Both variants come from the roundworm Toxocara. It is the eggs from the roundworm in the faeces that can infect humans.

Random soil sampling shows that the majority of the parks in the UK are contaminated with Toxocara eggs in various stages of development.

The eggs are resistant to freezing and disinfectants and can survive for two years or more. One solution to avoid these eggs is to scoop that poop!

Humans can contract Toxocara through the contact of faeces carrying eggs of the parasite. The parasite can only infect humans if swallowed, which is why the majority of humans infected are children aged 18 months and five years.

In 1993, a doctor noted some 100 cases each year of Toxocara in humans, with half of the cases being serious eye damage. There is no useful treatment or cure to Toxocara.

White dog poo: people have been on the case of the disappearance of white dog poo. One theory is that in the olden days, before the age of dog wardens and pooper scoopers, the dog mess was left out in the cold and after some considerable time turned white, and hard.

Some people claim it’s got something to do with the diet, which apparently includes less calcium now that what it did. Some blame BSE. Bones and marrow are no longer given to dogs to chew on, leaving less calcium in their system, and consequently out of their system later on.