Urban parks increase the quality of life in large metropolitan areas, providing stress relief and various health benefits for residents 1, 2, 3. Designation of parks as on-leash and educating dog-owners may be an effective approach for reducing the fecal contamination. These results suggest that public park visitors, especially those visiting off-leash parks, are likely to be exposed to large amounts of dog feces. Dog feces were found more often and in greater amount in off-leash parks, and near park entrances and parking lots, than in on-leash parks and away from the park entrances. We estimated 127.23 g/ha of dog feces are left unpicked in city parks in total every week. We found off-leash parks to be significantly more contaminated than other types of parks. The average density of dog feces by the different dog leash policies of the parks and the distribution pattern of the fecal density within the parks were assessed, and the total contamination of the public parks for the entire city was estimated. We collected dog feces from randomly selected locations in the urban parks. In this study we analyzed the extent and patterns of the distribution of dog feces in the urban parks of the City of Calgary. Besides the social conflict, feces can pose serious health risks to both dogs and humans. Contamination of public parks by dogs is a potential source of conflict among park users, causing “tragedy of the commons” problems.
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