Almost 400 cases of dog fouling in two weeks at popular lough trail

ALMOST 400 cases of dog fouling were recorded in just two weeks at a popular walking route near Cookstown last month.

From May 2 to May 16, officers on patrol at Lough Fea recorded 37 bags of dog foul and 342 cases of unbagged dog foul.

The figures were revealed at a council meeting last week, when Chair of Mid Ulster District Council praised the efforts of everyone involved in the creation of a dog friendly walking route with the Dogs Trust and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful.

Council Chair, Councillor Cora Corry praised the council’s assistant director of health, leisure and wellbeing, Kieran Gordon and his staff for their efforts developing the ‘Walk this Way’ trail at Lough Fea.

Members of the committee were told the initiative aims to facilitate more opportunities for dog owners to dispose of dog waste by improving the site’s bin infrastructure and prominence.

The route is plotted and highlighted on welcome maps at entrances with prominent signage and colourful route markers every 200m to ensure walkers are on the correct path and bins that can only accept dog fouling are available at every kilometre of the path.

Praising the team’s effort, the Council Chair said, “Lough Fea is a popular spot for walkers and a hotspot for dog fouling and hopefully this will go someway to addressing the issues that were there, so well done everybody.”

Lough Fea was selected as a site for this initiative as it is a centrally located popular dog walking spot and is one of the more significant dog fouling hotspots in the district.

Members of the committee were also advised the council enforcement officers and WISE officers will be undertaking joint patrols in the area as part of this initiative and an update will be brought back to committee upon completion of the study.