MY GUIDE dog Ritchie is very important to me. He walks calmly and sensibly even despite the many distractions there are on the street. He has to concentrate hard to guide me to safety but it is difficult for him to concentrate sometimes with litter and food spilt on the pavement, as well as interesting smells on the wind.

Ritchie always walks me around puddles of water and ice. Walking for me is difficult and I have complained many times in this column about uneven paving, tree roots and other things. Ice, water and autumn leaves are seasonal hazards that I must avoid but there is one seasonal hazard that other people are responsible for and I really wish they wouldn’t do it.

Why do people have to smash glass bottles and glasses on the pavement leaving a hazardous mess that will cut my dog’s paws?

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I am visually impaired so I can’t see the glass very well and Ritchie doesn’t realise how dangerous it is. Maybe one day if he cuts a paw badly on some glass and it heals well, he may still be too frightened to walk on the pavement afterwards with any confidence.

Ritchie did cut his paw on the pavement once but luckily it was only a small wound that healed easily. It still required a trip to the vet. He may not be so lucky next time.

I understand that it is the season to be merry and people are partying and having lots of fun, but perhaps if the punishment for breaking glass on the street and leaving it behind was to walk around barefoot for the rest of the week, people might think again about doing it. People who do things like that without a thought for people or animals really are a little bit delinquent and our society has failed to teach them how to live in the community in an acceptable manner.

When I was younger I was brought up constantly hearing the mantra ‘keep Britain tidy’. The importance of clearing up my mess and taking my rubbish home with me was drummed into me from a young age. We must somehow instill into our younger generation the importance of keeping our environment tidy, clean and safe. During my working life in the field of nature conservation we used to promote the mantra: s Take only photographs, s Leave only footprints, s Spend only time.

This is particularly applicable to parks, woodlands and natural spaces but I think it should actually apply to everywhere in our environment. I wouldn’t really expect the punishment for people who leave broken glass on the street to be to walk on broken glass. However, I really think they should be given a dustpan and brush and be made to walk around the streets cleaning up the glass.

Grumpy old man’s rant over. Happy New Year to everybody.

 


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