*** Contrary to popular belief, dog feces is not fertilizer and does not provide any benefit to the soil.

*** Using dog feces as garden fertilizer can make people sick when eating the vegetables harvested.

*** Dog feces is the third leading cause of contaminated water.

*** Dog poop washes into water supplies and kills wildlife.

*** Children can get sick and even die from dog poop bacteria washing from a neighboring yard.

*** Dog feces is a protein by-product that attracts rats that will eat the undigested protein found in the fecal matter.

*** Having rats in your yard will attract feral cats and snakes compounding the dangers to pets and humans.

*** Poop is a breeding ground for many varieties of flies that can carry diseases and bacteria into homes, on to human skin, food and other areas that will make people sick.

*** Dog poop contaminates recreational water ways, lake and rivers. Studies have found that 20% of the bacteria contaminating some waterways can be traced back to dog poop.

*** Dog poop can carry a number of zoonotic diseases (those that can be transferred from pets to humans)

To avoid potential infection, dog feces should be removed from the yard every 1 – 7 days, depending on the size of the dog and number of dogs in the household. Larger dogs will need more frequent cleanups, as will households with more than 1 dog.

Ask your neighbors to clean up after their pets because when the parasites run off into the ground water and your dog drinks from a puddle, creek or pond then your dog will ingest the parasites causing sickness and even death. If your children walk barefoot though a puddle in your own yard they can contract a disease or parasites directly from your neighbors’ pets.

More in the link:  http://mrdogpoop.com/howbadispoop.html

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It has been estimated that a single gram of dog waste can contain 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, which are known to cause cramps, diarrhea, intestinal illness, and serious kidney disorders in humans. EPA even estimates that two or three days’ worth of droppings from a population of about 100 dogs would contribute enough bacteria to temporarily close a bay, and all watershed areas within 20 miles of it, to swimming and shell fishing.

Dog feces are one of the most common carriers of the following diseases:

• Whipworms
• Hookworms
• Roundworms
• Tapeworms
• Parvo
• Corona
• Giardiasis
• Salmonellosis
• Cryptosporidiosis
• Campylobacteriosis

If you aren’t worried about the state of your local waterways, you may be a bit more concerned about the impact of dog waste a little closer to home. The thing about persistently disposing of stools improperly (or not at all) is that it kicks off a harmful cycle that can affect your whole family—including your pet.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pet droppings can contribute to diseases animals pass to humans, called zoo-noses. When infected dog poop is deposited on your lawn, the eggs of certain roundworms and other parasites can linger in your soil for years.  Anyone who comes into contact with that soil—be it through gardening, playing sports, walking barefoot or any other means—runs the risk of coming into contact with those eggs; especially your dog.

More in the link:  http://www.doodycalls.com/resources-toxic-dog-waste/

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An artist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Matthew Mazzotta, invented a waste digester for a Cambridge dog park that produces and burns methane to light the park. It’s a small-scale solution, but one that could be deployed at a much larger scale, putting Fido’s feces to use as a clean-energy resource.  More in the link:  http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-oe-lewis-dogs-environmentalism-20141102-story.html