Dear Porthleven,
The children of Porthleven School are writing this open letter as we would like to ask people in the village to make sure they clean up after their dogs. It is something that the children think is a growing problem, where they have noticed it all around our village. During the last week the School Council, which is run by pupils, have been holding meetings with the children in each class, along with the teachers, to talk about the issue about the dog mess in Porthleven. When we talked to the children here are some of their comments,
“There is lots of poo around the park, especially around the goal and it has stopped my mum letting me play there.”
“My mummy found 20 large pieces of dog poo in one field and was really cross. She picked up every single piece of poop.”
“I am really scared for my dog because the rain makes it go in the stream and all the germs might make her very ill when she drinks from it.”
“The posters don’t work. I watched somebody scoop up the mess and put the bag in a hedge.”
“There are not enough bins and they are never cleaned.”
“There are more flies with the mess and they go all over you.”
“My dog was really poorly from eating it and got a parasite in its tummy.”
“I went for a walk and there was poo on the beach, in the lane and by the swings – it was everywhere!”
This is just a few of the comments we have collected.
The pupils are really concerned that if they get it on their shoes, they could spread into school on the floor where they might sit.
We have been investigating and know that dog poo has 23 million bacteria on just one gram. This makes it stink and is unpleasant, but most importantly, it can make us really poorly. It also has toxins in that could make us blind. It is bad for our environment and gets into the water and se
We want to change this by making people more aware of the issues. If there are more bins, people might use them? Why do people just leave it on the floor? We have seen signs saying about fines for people who don’t clear up the mess but are they enforced?
Thank you for the time in reading our concerns and we really would like you to address this problem as soon as possible.
Yours Sincerely
Porthleven School Council
