Piece of Advice #102: Don't expect other people to work out your problems for you

In perusing my local Catholic magazine, I came across an advice column, and the resolution the columnist, Dr. Gelasia Marquez, recommended was so off the mark, I wanted to highlight and fisk it here:

My neighbors don’t pick up after their dog

Q. We share a back yard with our townhouse neighbors and they keep letting their dog out to ‘do his business’ but then don’t pick up after him. We’ve asked them nicely and it works for a few days, but then we’re back to the same problem.  
A. Among the 10 reasons an animal resource coalition lists for a dog’s owners to pick up after their dogs is this one – which I consider the most important: “Abandoned dog poop can host diseases and/or parasites that can infect other dogs who come into contact with it, or be transmitted to people who accidentally step in it and track it home. Particularly at risk, of course, are children who play on the ground.”
    This is a health issue and you have the right to enforce drastic solutions. However, before you do so, you might want to consider putting together an educational flier to distribute among the townhouse neighbors, and perhaps on local community bulletin boards. Approach your neighbor with it first, and mention the principle of the Golden Rule – would they want their children exposed to this kind of hazard?
    If this doesn’t work, you may need to file a complaint with the local health department.  

People tend to fall into a spectrum when it comes to pets - from the extreme hoarders who can live happily in a sea of excrement to germaphobes who cannot conceptualize living with anything that won't whip out a sanitizing wipe at the thought of a biological function occurring.  This lady seems to be a lot closer to the latter than the former.

While dog poop is indeed fecal matter and can have parasites and germs and be gross, canine-borne bacteria is hardly the number one medical problem we face as a society.  Additionally, the outdoors is full of critters who eat and poop and spread germs, and human immunity can generally take them on and win. Children are not mentioned in the original question, so babies eating dog poop off the grass is probably not the heart of the matter.

This is not a health issue.  This is a roommate issue.  The person positing the question shares space with other people who do not have the same priorities as she (or he) does.  They also do not appear to care overly much if she is upset by the dog poop and aren't afraid of what will happen if this continues to go unresolved.  This is the same kind of issue as living with a slobby roommate who never washes the dishes or with one who plays the same album (say, Billy Joel's Storm Front, featuring that hit single, "We Didn't Start the Fire") over and over and over and over and over again.

Appealing to the neighbors through the use of flyers (really, flyers?) is useless.  They don't care and won't insert themselves into this petty dispute.  Involving the local health department is even more absurd.  The person who takes the call may find it amusing to relate to her coworkers, but no one is going to come down and investigate the turds of a licensed pet living in a private townhouse.

Ultimately, this is going to be up to the complainant to resolve.  No one is going to take this on for her.  Most problems are solvable with the right amount of force, but in most situations force is inappropriate or inadvisable.  Yet Dr. Marquez seems to advocate for this when she writes:

This is a health issue and you have the right to enforce drastic solutions.

What kind of "drastic solution" does she mean?  Acting so crazy or dangerous that the neighbors became afraid of her?  Maybe leaving a roadkill opossum on the porch with a note that says, "This is what happens to opossums whose owners don't pick up their little possum poop."  This might motivate the neighbors a bit (to call the cops).  Or she could outright demand they pick up after their pet or nag and nag them all the time when they don't.  She could sell the townhouse and move to a single residence.  Or she could decide this is a minor issue, not worth the trouble, and either live with the situation or pick up the dog poop herself.

Personally, I would recommend blowing it off.  Being really controlling takes a lot of effort and is generally not very rewarding.  And the average American is a lot more at risk for Type II Diabetes than roundworms.