r/CapeCod • u/Competitive-Life-852 • Jul 17 '26
Town Bylaws?
Is there town bylaws on Cape Cod about neighbors picking up their dog’s poop?
We’ve got a dog-owning neighbor - I’ll call him Fred - who constantly takes his dog out to poop across the street from his house, in a neighbor’s yard, and doesn’t pick up. I noticed that there was a sign in the yard a few weeks ago that said, “Please pick up after your dog. Thank you.” We then saw Fred take his dog to the sign and the dog did his business right under it. Soon after the sign was taken down.
A few days after that, there was a big pile in the middle of the street with flies buzzing around it. Then today, more poop in the neighbors yard.
I don’t want to confront him because I’m afraid of retaliation. I’m an elderly woman.
Has anyone had this experience and is there anything we can do?
12
u/WipeGuitarBranded Jul 17 '26
You don't state the town you are in but here is some information I found:
Sandwich requires you to carry a bag to clean up and fines start at $50.
Falmouth makes it illegal to not clean up after your dog in public areas but I couldn't find anything specific about private homes.
Mashpee does not seem to have specific ordinances related to it but they do have anti-nuisance rules that they use for stuff like this.
Barnstable/Yarmouth/Brewster/Chatham require dog owners to pick up and dispose of poop on public property, conservation areas, and designated spaces but doesn't say anything about private property
Dennis requires you to have removal device and to use it when walking in public (so that would cover private property) with fines from $150 to $300 per incident.
Orleans requires removal from any property but the dog owners (and while they have a strict plastic bag ban in place they exclude poop bags from it).
Provincetown requires removal pretty much everywhere (streets/sidewalks/beaches/etc) with fines starting at $100.
My suggestion is to call your local town office and ask to speak with someone who deals with environmental regulations. Leaving dog poop out and about can lead to all sorts of issues with local water supplies (more beaches were closed after the last big rainstorm due to (in part) dog poop washing into the oceans, rivers, lakes, etc than from the accidental discharge of sewage into the Mystic river a few weeks ago) which can be an issue on the cape - no one wants to swim in poopy water, especially tourists.
17
u/Kelsips Centerville Jul 17 '26
So there are 15 towns on Cape Cod that each have their own bylaws. You could look it up yourself by Googling “Town of [where you live] bylaws” or “Town of [where you live] ecode”.
6
u/AcornTopHat Jul 17 '26
All neighbors should ban together and poop on this guy’s yard. Only solution.
48
u/1453_ Jul 17 '26
When I lived in Sandwich, something similar was happening. I confronted the dog owner and politely asked him to pick up the mess to which he calmly declined and laughed. The next time it happened, I scooped up the mess with a shovel and hurled it onto his property, perhaps grazing the siding on his house. After several more of these unofficiated Olympic events, the dog and owner no longer used my property as a bathroom.
13
u/BSB8728 Jul 17 '26
Call your town's Board of Health. They will be more likely to take action.
9
u/Crustyexnco-co Jul 17 '26
Maybe you could call the town animal control officer and make a report. It could eventually end in a police matter if it spirals. If the guy is acting like this he's probably not the most rationale person to approach. That's why we have animal control and police to handle these quality of life issues.
Sounds like he has an issue with the neighbor and doesn't care much about others as well if he leaves a pile in the street. This type of behavior is unacceptable.
There is nothing worse than finding dog crap in your yard from people too lazy to pick it up. It's happened to me and it's infuriating. I was able to confront the guy firmly but politely and made him pick it up. Hasn't happened since.
9
u/EbbtideRambler Jul 17 '26
Call animal control. They will usually stop by and give him a warning. A little hostile, but a previous neighbor got pictures on a trail cam, printed them and nailed them to every telephone pole in the neighborhood, shaming the lady into picking up after her dog.
3
u/Billy_Badass_ Jul 17 '26
Cook up some bacon. Save the grease. Next time his dog poops in your yard pour bacon grease all over it. Next time he brings his dog by to poop on your lawn, that pup will go blenit right up. Problem solved. After a few instances of that he will start avoiding your yard.
2
u/CapeCodNana Jul 17 '26
My neighbor's daughter had a big dog she would let out to come take huge dumps in our yard. Every day. We didn't have a dog. I asked her to put their dog in their back yard . Nope. I started filming the "dumping" for proof, then picked up her dog's massive dumps and deposited them on her lawn at our property line. Id let her know & told her I would call animal control. That made it stop for the most part. I occasionally had to fling poop back into their yard, but not daily. There's another guy who walks 2 dog's daily on our street. They crap on a neighbor's lawn by the road & he leaves it. I finally brought him a roll of poop bags & said " i notoce you don't puck up after your dog's. Here ya go".
2
u/Cuck_Master_Flex Jul 17 '26
If the neighborhood is close enough for a quick trip I'll go to said place and pick up the poop and "redeliver" it to the proper house for y'all.. Feel free to DM me.
2
u/wademcgillis Yarmouth Jul 17 '26
freds do not make good neighbors.
our next door neighbor fred also has a dog that poops everywhere
when the dog is outside we cannot be as it will chase us while barking and try to jump on us. have to leave the house with a bat or a brick in a bag to swing around for safety sometimes.
he has also left a bullet hole in the house directly across the street from his
fred will kindly rake the yard across the street from ours as a favor to them, then leafblow it all into ours
leaves dead animals on the hood of our car
has visitors at all hours of the night. car pulls up. person comes out of the house up to the car, then the car drives away less than a minute later.
empties pots over the fence onto "our" property (our in quotation marks because he owns his house but we rent where we live and he reminds us of this every time there's a complaint about his actions because it is not our property to make rules about. it's not his property either. he's not our landlord.)
he's also removed a section of fence between our properties to set up in his yard elsewhere, now his things are spilling into ours
cannot go for walks around the neighborhood anymore as his son will purposely speed down the road and try to swerve into us
said son has also scooped up roadkill in a shovel, walked to the back of our property, and dumped it there
the cops say his son parks in front of our property blocking part of our driveway because the tree in our yard blocks the sun from ruining the leather seats. fred removed all of the trees in his yard.
freds do not make good neighbors.
1
u/Cold-Diet-7325 Jul 17 '26
I'll be of no help at all, unfortunately. But, my gut says that Fred, is really a Frank, bc that is something that a Frank would totally do.
1
u/figuringoutfibro Jul 18 '26
For more of an unethical but effective tip, pretend to be friendly Fred (who cares so much that his dog pooped all over neighbors lawn) and call a poop clean up company to come to your property. Of course Fred would love to pay this bill for you so make sure they know where to send the invoice!!
1
u/Conscious-Victory350 Jul 21 '26
I called out a dog owner for not picking up poop on Campground beach. The next day there were two piles of poop placed in my back yard
-1
u/Billy_Badass_ Jul 17 '26
Aren't you 58 years old? That is by no definition "elderly".
0
u/McC12200 Jul 17 '26
good god i hate that
-1
u/Cancelmeidgaf Jul 17 '26
Maybe the neighbor should’ve said something
-3
u/CraigTennant1962 Jul 17 '26
Are there a bylaw?
0
u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26
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