The Big Scoop
News just in; The Big Scoop (And the Big Scoop Toolkit) is here and our message is more important than ever!
We share a beautiful country full of picturesque towns, charming parks and quaint streets. Unfortunately, it is hard to enjoy any of these spots without having to avoid something rather unpleasant; dog poop.
Yes, dog poop litters our country from Dublin to Donegal, and its about time we did something about that. So, that’s where our Big Scoop campaign comes in.
This is our annual campaign to highlight the importance of cleaning up after your dog. When people step on dog poop, its usually the dogs who get the blame, and we don’t think that’s fair, so in order to save our doggies from shame we must scoop that poop.
Our Big Scoop campaign is education based, with our Education team delivering workshops−both remotely and in-person (all subject to covid regulations) to schools all over Ireland. These fun and interactive workshops stress why it is so important to clean up dog mess, from highlighting the people most effected-young children, people who are visually impaired and wheelchair users, to focusing on the law; it is illegal and there are hefty fines attached, whilst also covering the potential health risk attached to leaving dog poop on the street. Whilst poop may not seem like the most glamorous part of dog ownership, it does exist, and we’ve found that in actuality, it can be quite a fun topic to engage with children on. They especially appreciate when we tell them that because children should not be walking their dog without a grown up present, it's the job of the adult to pick up after their dog, and it is the child’s job to remind the adult (not strangers) of importance of being a responsible dog owner.
Despite our wide reach, we cannot reach every child in the country directly, so we’ve designed a innovative toolkit that can be downloaded for free on our website. This toolkit is full of activities, lesson plans, and factsheets and can be enjoyed by classes, or at home with the family. We also have a limited number of live workshops available for primary schools so if you’re a teacher interested in booking one of those you can email [email protected]!