Owning a dog gives great pleasure and companionship to many. However, with ownership comes responsibilities beyond just making sure the dog is fed, looked after and exercised.

There have been people who have been shrinking their newfound responsibilities when it comes to picking up after their four-legged friends on walks. But according to the research from tails.com, London is the fifth city doing the most to stamp out dog mess.

London, despite having the most dogs in their city (over 4 million!) placed in fifth place, partly due to having plenty of parks and green space for them to share – however, these four million dogs produce plenty of poop, we calculated that it’s over 1 million KG of dog poop a day – that’s the same weight as 600 cars!

Newcastle scored 6 out of 10 possible points for its low dog to park ratio. In the city, 4260 dogs would share each green spare, which is 26% lower than the UK average. Newcastle also has one of the smallest dog populations overall (140,584, which is 77% less than the UK average), which means less poop produced each day.

How did the other cities stack up? Find out below…

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The top five UK cities tackling dog fouling:

Newcastle – Score 68/80
Manchester – 66
Southampton – 65
Nottingham – 64
London – 62
How Does Dog Poop Affect Our Carbon Paw-print?
You could say dogs have their own ‘Carbon Pawprints’ and despite being totally unavoidable (if your dogs got to go, they’ve got to go!) – dog poo can leave a mark. As of 2019, the U.K had an estimated nine million dogs, we estimated that this can equate to almost 50,000 tons of methane gas emissions every year which could power 227,053 homes for a whole year!

Europe has an estimated 85.5 million dogs, which equates to 468,113 tons of methane emissions, whilst the U.S has 90 million – creating 492,750 tons of gas.

This doesn’t mean we can’t help the environment whilst also helping our pets in other ways though, a great starting point is their food.

Packaging is a huge issue when it comes to the environmental impacts of our pets – and it’s difficult to find dog food that isn’t in plastic packaging (this is mainly due to how heavy dog food can be and the keeping the ingredients fresh), so instead bulk buy and don’t overfeed. Bulk-buying your pet’s food, whilst only feeding your dog the recommended amount results in less packaging used and purchases made less often – 85% of our packaging is already recyclable by weight. If you have specific healthy-type dog food in mind, then you may want to see if you can get Holistic dog food in bulk, for example, so you are catering to your dog’s needs without compromising on the environment.

You can also look into making your own dog treats at home, DIY style!

What about when we’re picking up our dog’s poop? The last thing we want to do is scoop it with our bare hands.

An ever-increasing number of authorities are bringing in rules that way carrying dog poo disposal equipment is a legal requirement – many people are turning to biodegradable poo bags.

Biodegradable bags, if disposed of properly in the correct bin or compost heap, can decompose in three to six months, whilst regular plastic bags could take hundreds of years.

If your dog also goes to the toilet in the back garden, you can also compost your dog’s poop! Composting should get rid of any harmful parasites or bacteria in your dog’s waste, however, you should still avoid using the compost as a vegetable fertiliser, just in case and instead stick to using it for grass, shrubs and flowers.