A woman from Kildare has appealed to dog and cat owners to pick up after their pets, after her six-year-old son was hospitalised with a bacterial infection.
Kris Overfield's son, Evan, was hospitalised after getting an infection that she believes was caused by dog waste.
She told The Hard Shoulder it all started with a high temperature one evening.
"The next morning he was off to hospital, where he began vomiting and he also had diarrhea from early in the morning.
"So he just became very, very unwell and his temperature was very difficult to regulate in the hospital".
She said he became dehydrated and was put on a drip.
"Because he had such a high temperature that wasn't coming down we thought 'Oh no, this might be COVID' - but then when he started having the gastro issues, we weren't so sure.
"And doctors weren't sure, either. It was actually a couple of days before they had an answer.
A sign shows it is prohibited to let your dog foul. Picture by: Ton Koene/DPA/PA Images"It was a couple of days before they had test results that showed... bacterial infection".
Kris said she could not figure out what might have caused it.
"I'd gone back over, to retrace every step, for a week prior to see what had he gotten into - or was there something that he had eaten.
"And it wasn't until nearly his discharge from hospital five days later, and my husband speaking with the doctor, that we learned one of the causes could have been cat or dog feces."
She said "the penny finally dropped" when she remembered her son had come in from a football game about four days earlier.
"He had come in covered in poo, there was a football game [with] the ball tossing back and forth between a couple of the lads out on the green and sure enough he came in and the first thing I could smell when he opened the door was the dog poo".
'Children have nowhere to go'
And she has appealed to people to pick up after their animals.
"I would just say please think of others, especially children, who are outside playing.
"We're all in this together, supposedly, and children have nowhere to go now but outdoors to run."
"They should be allowed outdoors to run in the fresh air anyway without having to worry about stepping in somebody else's dog poo".
She said people need to be reminded of the consequences of this.
"I know there are many, many people out there who are doing the right thing - but clearly some are not.
"And there are consequences and I think people should be reminded of that".
Dog owners who do not dispose of dog faeces in a responsible manner may receive an on-the-spot fine of €150.
While a failure to pay an on-the-spot fine can lead to prosecution in the District Court, with a maximum fine of €3,000 and €600 per day for continuing offences on summary conviction.
It comes as the Mayor of County Cork, Mary Linehan-Foley, said it is currently too hard to prosecute people for failing to clean up dog poo.
She earlier told The Pat Kenny Show that dog fouling is a "horrible, horrible issue" that has been on the rise in recent months.
"It has come to a head, I suppose lately, in the sense that so many people have contacted me saying they are bringing it in to their homes and bringing it in on their wheelchairs and their buggies and stuff," she said. "So, something has to be done about it.
"The laws around it are not that strong in that the litter warden can't fine somebody unless they actually catch them in the act."
She said she believes it is now time to introduce regulations like those in parts of Europe, where people can be fined for not carrying a poo bag if they are walking their dog.
