Human nature
April 8, 2025 at 4:54 PM by Dr. Drang
On my walk this morning, I was greeted by this scene at the entrance to the Springbrook Prairie Preserve.
By the rocks in the lower right corner and elsewhere on that side of the path were about a dozen colorful bags of dogshit.
I’ve downsized the image so you can’t zoom in to read the little white sign stuck in the ground near the center of the frame. Here it is:
It says
Please! Keep our beautiful preserve clean. Haul your dog waste bags out of the park with you. Thank you.
Bags of shit left behind by dog walkers are not uncommon in Springbrook, but I’ve never seen so many in one spot. Maybe this is my general misanthropy talking, but I couldn’t help but think that the bags were deliberately carried and dropped there as a “fuck you” to the sign writer. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
No question, the sign writer was being passive aggressive and probably should have expected that reaction. I would have, but that’s probably my misanthropy coming out again.
I just got back from my second walk to Springbrook today. I took a large bag, gathered up all the small bags, and put them in my garbage bin at home. The bins go out tonight, so it’s not like I’m hoarding dogshit.
I didn’t do this because I’m a good person. My wife was the good person, and she would have been appalled. Not by the dogshit but by the plastic bags, which would tear apart (some already had) and spread tiny bits of plastic over the prairie to be eaten by the birds and coyotes who live there. She would’ve gone back to pick up the bags, so I had to.