Work to get a true understanding of how much of a problem was caused by dog owners not cleaning up after their animals begun four years ago with surveys in St Peter Port, and is part of an island-wide initiative supported by the States Vet, Environment & Infrastructure Committee, Clean Earth Trust, La Societe Guernesiase, National Trust of Guernsey and the Guernsey Farmers Association.
Angus Bodman, who is helping to organise the surveys, said the work had been conducted with the support of the States Veterinary Office in an attempt to obtain hard data in an area which was full of anecdote and hearsay.
‘The survey, which is a carefully-designed exercise, relying upon volunteer citizen-scientists using an app designed by Oxford University in cooperation with the Welcome Foundation, aims to provide independently verifiable data on the level of fouling across the parish,’ he said.
When St Peter Port volunteers undertook their survey in 2021, more than 400 incidences were identified over a period of less than two months.
In Guernsey the Control of Dogs Ordinance came into force in 1992 and states that an offence is committed if a person in charge of a dog fails to clean up faeces immediately.
They could be subject to a fixed penalty fine of £100 or prosecution.
Torteval douzaine recently appealed on social media for volunteers to take part in the 30-day survey and Mr Bodman said that the scheme now had a full complement of helpers.
‘This is the penultimate parish to be surveyed in an island-wide process which has been in train for the past four years,’ he said.
‘It is hoped that St Peter’s, the last remaining parish to be surveyed, will also agree to such a survey shortly.’
Anyone interested in assisting in the survey in St Peter’s is asked to contact the douzaine office.