Re The Bolton News’ Comment, September 23. It seems nothing escapes dog mess: shoes, bare feet on beaches, kids hands from falling on football pitches, running shoes, mountain bikes, prams and car tyres; even wheel chairs and mobility scooters. It must even end up in hospitals.

Dog litter, drinks cans, food wrappers, what’s the difference?

I was brought up to ‘take my litter home’.

The ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ campaign of years ago attempted to educate people to do just that — dispose of it in the nearest waste bin, or take it home if there wasn’t one.

An electronic message (the wonder of technology) which I saw on the motorway recently read: ‘Take your litter home. Others do’. Why shouldn’t dog owners take their pets mess home? Given bio-degradable bags they could flush it down the toilet. What a stomach churning job emptying ‘dog waste bins’ must be. Does it qualify for extra pay?

Just because bins are full or not available is no excuse for dumping it in the nearest undergrowth, or as I’ve experienced, in the hedgerow I tend to with care, or my dustbin after it’s been emptied.

Given that dog fouling is such a huge problem, (council workers made sick with it and children made blind) isn’t it time for dog licencing, the cost of which – given today’s technology – would pay for ID-chipping.

A chip could carry all the dog’s details/DNA, then any dog fouling could be traced back to source in an instant. With ‘no ifs, no buts’ and a £1,000 fine, (no excuse for under-funding then) our streets, parks and playing fields would surely be clean in a (dog) generation. How do other countries manage the problem?

Allan Ramsay Radcliffe