The lowdown on SCV's dirty little secrets

By Jim Holt, SCV Independent

Ah, summer in Santa Clarita.

School is out - the skies are blue, the lawns are green, the days are long and the nights are cool.
Time for sandals and running barefoot through the park.
Not so fast.

 

The SCV Independent has unearthed some disturbing observations prompting this reporter to issue this simple warning - watch where you step. Rodney Dangerfield once told a joke that went like this, "My father always told me to watch out for number one - but don't step in number two."

But to many in this area, there is little humor to be found in the situation.

Strolling along some of Santa Clarita's 20 miles of manicured paseos and sidewalks by parks, schools, swimming pools and tennis courts has revealed an alarming amount of dog feces.

As an increasing number of families choose to settle here, raising babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers, the time for cute euphemisms to describe a serious issue detrimental to the health of those children is perhaps over.

It's not doggie doo-doo and it's not doggie poo-poo.
It's a reckless and negligent disregard for the health of our children due to the implications posed by uncollected dog feces, The SCV Independent has learned from state and county health officials.

Watch your step

A Sunday afternoon stroll through Valencia Glen Park and similar strolls through Central Park and areas around North Park Elementary School revealed a dirty secret not very well kept.

Using red construction flags to mark spots where dog feces was found, the SCV Independent documented a dozen dumpings of excrement between Via Irana and Valencia Glen Park.

All of the findings were found on manicured grass islands along the paseo, on average about two feet from the paved lanes (the length of a dog leash).

Except for one deposit of dog feces left directly in front of the park offices and the city pool at Valencia Glen Park - a car length away from the sand in which toddlers dig by slides and climbers - the park was relatively clean.

On the other side of the same park, by the tennis courts, however, the SCV Independent found and photographed eight deposits of dog feces - including one deposit on the actual paved paseo - along a stretch only three car-lengths long.

"It's disgusting," said one mother of toddler playing at the park Sunday.

When asked if she was shocked to learn a dozen deposits of dog feces were found along a two-block stretch of paseo leading to the park, she said: "I'm not shocked because I come here every day."

One sample was found only a bicycle-length away from the public pool at Valencia Glen, half a dozen other samples were found within a 20-foot radius around the plastic bag dispenser put there by the city.

Peg and Bruce were walking their dachshund through the same park Sunday and were asked about owners neglecting to pick after their pets.

"We pick up after our dog," said Peg. Bruce held up a transparent bag of dog feces.

"But, a lot of people don't. A couple of weeks ago two girls were walking two huge mongrel dogs and they let these dogs take a dump on our lawn," Peg added. "So, I said something to them and they called me a bitch."

Death and blindness

Dog feces left in areas where children play poses a health risk, according to Los Angeles County health officials contacted by the SCV Independent.

There are a number of diseases caused by parasites such as roundworms that can be transferred from dogs people through feces left on the ground.
Roundworm infections in young children can turn into very serious ailments.

"This is a public health problem," said Dr. William Grant II of Orange County, spokesman for the California Veterinary Medical Association.

"It is particularly a problem for children if the (dog) feces is not picked up and it get swished around in the grass allowing for eggs and cysts to develop.

"These stay on the grass and then kids come along running, falling and rolling on the grass for games such as baseball or soccer, and if they come in contact with the egg-laden grass, then these intestinal parasites get into the kids," he said.

A number of intestinal parasites can be transmitted from dog feces to humans, Dr. Grant says, with the very serious danger that the parasite could then travel internally from the intestines to other organs in the body.

Cases of blindness and death have been documented as a result of intestinal parasites such as those transmitted through dog feces moving from the intestines to other parts of the body.

"These diseases are not without significant problems," he said.

Dr. Patrick Ryan, chief veterinarian for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said: "children are at the highest risk.

"They get their hands dirty, the feces could contain parasites," he said. "Roundworms are fairly common."
Both Dr. Ryan and Dr. Grant said the most serious risk to humans are when intestinal parasites migrate within the infected host, in some cases leading to blindness and death.

One way to reduce the risk of parasites being transmitted to humans is for dog owners to take a sample of their dog's stool to the vet for examination. The easier way to avoid this, of course, is for dog owners to pick up after their dogs.

While many dog owners were seen walking their dogs, plastic blue bags in hand, The SCV Independent found several examples of dog-walkers allowing their dogs to defecate freely.

The Dirty Dozen

A stroll through Central Park Monday morning - criss-crossing the soccer fields between the two restroom areas turned up only one example of dog feces by the parking lot.

The SCV Independent's informal survey of the park on Bouquet Canyon Road tracked an area behind a lawn mower as it cut grass that morning.

But neatly trimmed doesn't mean clean.

Grass was also recently cut on North Park Drive (as witnessed by grass clippings on the sidewalk) between Copper Hill Drive and McBean Parkway.

We walked a stretch of sidewalk from Cheeseborough Park, around North Park Elementary School to the largest of three swimming pools in North Park by Copper Hill.

No dog feces was found anywhere in Cheeseborough Park itself - around the climbers and swings, the baseball diamond or along the paseo connecting the school to the ballpark.

Only one tennis ball-sized clump of dried dog excrement was found on the sidewalk in front of the school itself.
The most disturbing find by the SCV Independent was along the sidewalk just south of Esperanza Way.

At least 14 pieces of dog feces - from human-sized samples to cat-sized ones - including two sections of feces on the sidewalk itself littered an area around the bag dispenser and a public trash can.

One sample sat in the middle of the sidewalk, a car length from the dispenser, two car lengths from the trashcan.

As photographs were taken of the flags staked at spots where feces was found, a teenage boy listening to an iPod walked down the center of the flags oblivious to this reporter, the red flag markers and the dog s**t they marked.

On the other side of Esperanza Way, in front of the swimming pool on North Park Drive, two dumps of dog feces were found - one of them only two car lengths from the toddler wading pool.

The city's plastic bag dispensers provide dog owners with a wide variety of options and a couple of polite warnings such as: "Be kind and don't be fined."

Options included scented and "odor-neutral" bags, capsules instead of bags (for those bothered by textural contact), instructions on usage and a 24-hour hot line for the Santa Clarita Landscape Maintenance Districts.

A call to the listed number - the people who actually clean up the mess- referred all official comment to the city's director of communications.

The city of Santa Clarita spends $15,000 a year on the disposable "poop bags" on paseo trails, according to city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz. More than 250,000 actual bags are used, she noted.

"This community does a great job when it comes to picking up at city parks," she told the SCV Independent. "I don't know if it's peer pressure or what but people are so good at policing themselves."

The newspaper noticed most dog-walkers carried blue plastic bags with them on their walks.

"When it comes to the 20 miles of paseos, I've spoken to the manager of our Landscape Maintenance Districts and he says the same thing, that people are pretty responsible for picking up after themselves," Ortiz added.

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