Thursday December 9th saw the launch of the “Leave Only Pawprints Project” at Old Road School in Llanelli.
Llanelli Town Council is working with Carmarthenshire County Council and Pride in Your Patch on the Caru Cymru dog fouling educational project ‘leave only pawprints’, with the hashtags #bagitbinit or #bagobino.
Educational sessions are being held with local primary schools with the first undertaken in conjunction with County Council Officers. A social media campaign will be carried out during December to promote the project and encourage more considerate care for dogs and open spaces.
The year 5 pupils at Old Road School attended a classroom presentation with the Officers from the Town and County Council’s along with Llanelli Community Partnership. After the session, the pupils were out stencilling around their school.
Additionally, as part of the campaign, footprint and paw stencils will be utilised with chalk spray at Crown Park, Penygaer, Peoples’ Park and Penyfan Park to mark areas where dog fouling is noted in order to promote the project and positive actions. The project will continue through to January 2022 with a further campaign being carried out in the summer of 2022.
There will be a focus on park areas, with a number of schools taking part in Llanelli.
Llanelli Town Mayor, Cllr Michael Cranham said:
“Llanelli Town Council are pleased to be taking part in this project in partnership with others to promote and encourage more considerate care for dogs and our open spaces and parks in Llanelli.”
The Leader of Llanelli Town Council, Cllr John Jenkins said:
“The issue of dog mess has been a growing problem in our parks and I welcome this project which will work with local school pupils as well as promoting more considerate dog ownership and will hopefully educate inconsiderate individuals on the impact of their actions”.
Chair of Llanelli Community Partnership, Paolo Piana, said:
“The Community Partnership is delighted to support this initiative. We have been working with 5 primary schools in Llanelli as part of our Connect 2021 Project, and time and time again the pupils raised dog fouling as an issue.”
We asked the pupils at Old Road School why they thought the “Leave only Footprints Project” was so important.
Anni said:
“I think it’s important that we keep our streets and parks clean.”
Amy added, “If your dog makes a mess, just remember to bag and bin it”
And Kaiden summed up what we were all thinking:
“I think cleaning up after your dog is important because I know you wouldn’t like dog mess on your feet!”
