Trainer Graeme Hall says you shouldn’t have a dog if you can’t afford biodegradable poo bags

Dog trainer Graeme Hall has urged owners to use biodegradable poo bags to pick up their pet’s waste – and argued you shouldn’t have a pooch if you can’t afford to buy them. 

During a debate on Good Morning Britain today that several viewers moaned turned them off their breakfast, the Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly presenter, who lives in the Cotswolds, said the cost of owning a dog runs into many thousands of pounds over its lifetime. 

With 64 per cent of Britons claiming abandoned dog waste is an issue in their area, Graeme said alternatives such as flicking it to the side of a path, using a Tupperware box to scoop it up or carrying a shovel aren’t practical or environmentally friendly ways of getting rid of it.

Speaking to hosts Kate Garraway and Alex Beresford, he recommended using bags made from corn starch to pick up your pet’s poop because they tend to break down within three to six months when properly disposed of.

‘Other alternatives aren’t going to work. Apologies to anyone halfway through their Weetabix right now, but some poo ain’t for flicking,’ he said.

‘The corn starch bags in the ground break down in three to six months so they’re definitely the ones to go for, to use them it’s pretty much the same as any other bag. 

‘I think that is the answer, they don’t cost that much more; I did some research for my book last year about the cost of owning a dog and it’s many thousands of pounds over its lifetime.

‘Frankly if you can’t afford corn starch bags you can’t afford a dog. I’d be as clear as that.’

Also taking part in the debate was author Zion Lights, who stressed the importance of not flicking dog poo to the side of the path.

‘It’s not just that children might step in it, when there’s a lot of dog waste in one area it changes the balance of the soil and that soil then suffocates native plants,’ she said.

‘So it’s really not a good solution. It does need to be bagged, but we need to stop using single use plastic bags.

‘Corn starch bags have been shown to break down properly and are still hardy enough so that you can carry your dog poo home without it breaking away.

‘It looks very similar, they cost a little bit more money but we have to think about the cost to the environment of these single use plastic bags.’

She also shut down Alex Beresford’s suggestion of taking dog waste home and flushing it down the toilet, arguing it could pollute our waterways.

‘Dog poo contains pathogens, it can be quite harmful to human health,’ she stressed. ‘Don’t flush it down the loo.’

Graeme acknowledged that abandoned dog waste in bags is a big issue, brought on by the ‘bag it and bin it’ mantra introduced over the past 10 years, but stressed the importance of being responsible and picking up poop.

‘There’s a serious health condition, in rare cases it can cause loss of sight and it tends to be children affected by it because they do play in the dirt – so we do have to be responsible and get rid of it,’ he explained.

‘The answer is the right kind of bags that break down – and then a system that takes it away in a composting stream so that it doesn’t end up in landfill.’

Many viewers found the debate somewhat distasteful for first thing in the morning, but a number agreed with Graeme’s point that you should be able to afford biodegradable bags if you can afford to keep a dog.