"but what about all those lovely E. coli and Salmonella organisms that are so easily spread from dogshit by flies and which are present in each and every dogturd you ever see?"

The countryside is still a pretty public place. Where I live I see a lot more cow poo and sheep poo around than dog poo, and there are certainly a lot of flies on it. Better start putting down all the sheep and cows. Not to mention the badger and foxes. After all, they carry loads of disease, and they're just roaming free, pooing wherever they like.

The dog defenders on this thread have only ever advocated responsible dog ownership - which means, to me, keeping your dog on a lead unless it is absolutely under control - if a dog does not come back immediately when called, it is NOT under control. And cleaning up after it. And making sure that someone wants to interact with your dog before you allow that to happen. As a dog owner whose dog is never off the lead, I also get pissed off with the "It's all right, he's only playing!" as a strange dog comes bounding over to mine. My dog was bred as a working terrier, and she might do yours a serious injury - and I tell the owners this. She's fantastic with people, but not so much with other animals - one of the reasons she's never off the lead. If an out-of-control dog insists on "playing" with her, it might get a nasty surprise.

Yesterday in my village, I watched some (supervised) dogs on the green outside the pub happily playing together and doing no one any harm and causing no nuisance. The only nuisance was from a little kid of about four who was running around screaming his head off (his dad was inside the pub drinking).

To be honest, bad parenting is a much bigger nuisance, and causes a lot more problems for society, than bad dog ownership (though as I've said earlier, the same sorts of people tend to be responsible for both). Your responses come across as ever-so-slightly OTT and obsessive, Steve. Maybe you need to get things in perspective a little.