I confess that I’m not always a good dog owner. Sometimes I let poop lie, if I’m out of bags or it seems unobtrusive enough. So, the rant that follows reeks of hypocrisy.

Still, I was appalled by the number of dog turds dotting the sledding hill at Roby Park the other day.

I was down there with my boy, who was sledding on the shreds of snow (the city doesn’t seem to have been using its snow gun). I decided to run up and down the hill a while, and soon realized it was an obstacle course.

It’s obvious that people in the area are mistaking the park for a toilet. I can understand letting dogs foul the scrubby wooded areas, but kids play all over that grassy hill. Some kids like to roll down it, even. Ew.

I hate to suggest it, but perhaps dogs should be banished from Roby and some of the other city parks.

Of course, it would be nice, too, if the city provided trash bins in the parks (year round, and emptied them often) for those of us who do pick up doo doo.