Why should I pick up my dog’s poo?

In my local countryside lanes and wooded walks, no one is bagging the excrement deposited by the deer, foxes, rabbits or birds. There are luxuriant piles of horse manure in the fields. Cow dung is positively welcomed on the common by boho surburbanites for its contribution to biodiversity. Pet cats deposit their poop not just in the countryside, but also in my garden. So why is it only dog poo we take exception to?

‘Your dog just did a poo,’ a passerby said this morning. I looked at her non-plussed. Was this supposed to be praise, like an adult admiring a child’s majestic mastery of the potty? 

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘How rude!’ she huffed. I’d forgotten that blithely walking past your dog doing its business in a hedge in the countryside is completely verboten these days. 

I get it. I am supposed to pick it up, carry the steaming warm bag for a couple of miles and then put it in a bin, from whence it will be transported by local council waste collection to landfill.