Anyone who takes the dog for a walk knows the drill; before leaving you stuff a couple of plastic bags into your pocket to clean up after your pet.
In fact, most municipalities now make it a law that pet owners must pick up after their dogs or else face a fine. What if there were a way to avoid that and stay within the law?
The makers of a new product, Doggie Doo Dissolver, claim they have the answer. By just squirting the dog feces with the liquid, the feces just melts away in a matter of minutes. A video posted on YouTube appears to show the fecal matter dissolving after being sprayed.
The product marketers claim their product not only removes the feces but is the most environmentally-friendly way to do it, since the plastic bags full of dog droppings aren't headed for a landfill. But does just “dissolving” the solid waste really solve the problem?
Misleading
“Although I have not seen the technical data of this product, the claim that it 'dissolves' the feces is extremely misleading, as it certainly does not eliminate any of the nutrients in the feces,” said Bruce Wiggins, a professor of biology at James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, Va. “This is the major reason the feces should be removed from the ground, so that the nutrients do not enter the groundwater.”
The product description says Doggie Doo Dissolver is “an incredible new-patented enzyme that when sprayed on dog feces will dissolve it within minutes.” It may, in fact, do that. But that may only eliminate the physical evidence and for many pet owners, that may be enough.
But pet owners who truly want to protect the environment will probably need to keep carrying those plastic bags.