"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...

"Phil L" wrote in message
. uk...

But if you're just shovelling it into holes or trenches, does it
matter?
(someone wrote)

My dog is almost vegetarian (although I'm not) and she prefers beans
to
bacon any day!

What "matters", is that people understand what human health risk is
carried in cat and dog poop. If they don't have that information they
won't understand why dog poop compost/ toxocara eggs should be kept well
away from, say, salad crops, or childrens play areas. Or why pregnant
women might not want to handle compost made with dog pooh.

The continued insistence by some posters that their dog eats the same
food as themselves, or is a vegetarian, as if that made their pooh
safer , suggests they don't know that risk.

It does not matter is your dog is fed from birth on boiled rice hand
picked by virgin vegans. It was BORN carrying the eggs of toxocara worms
which it acquired from its mother before birth. Medication will kill the
adult worms in pets gut, but reinfection is rapid (from swallowing worm
eggs (shed in faeces) from around its anus, the anus and droppings of
other animals it sniffs, the coat of other animals it licks, etc etc
etc). IOW, you should always treat dog and cat pooh on the assumption it
carries toxocara eggs. The adultworms are easy to kill; the eggs are
much more persistent and can remain dormant until they reach a host gut.


Toxocara worms can migrate through the human gut wall into other
organs and may cause abortion, damage to unborn foetus, and blindness.
Infants and pregnant women are most at risk. There are several thousand
cases in the UK each year iirc.

That's the consideration for gardeners to make. NOT, the diet of the
pet concerned.

Janet.

very good information, thanks. I had not considered the worm aspect of it.