QUIRKY messages and drawings reminding dog owners to pick up their pets' mess have been spotted around Ealing.

Dog owners and walkers are being warned to pick up their pets' poo after a "small number of irresponsible residents" have been leaving the mess behind.

Ealing Council has issued a reminder it is illegal not to pick up dog poo from any public space or footpath left by a dog you look after and can result in a £150 fine.

Dipti Patel, Ealing Council's director of place delivery, said: "Most owners do clear up after their pets but, sadly, a small minority don't.

"There's no excuse for this, it's antisocial and a health hazard.

"It stinks and, quite frankly, it is unacceptable behaviour just to leave it.

"If these people are caught, they will be fined."

Images of the residents' messages were shared by LAGER Can (Litter Action Group for Ealing Residents) with Ealing Council.

One picture of a sketched dog left on a tree read: "Stop leaving poobags it's giving us dogs a bad name grrr."

Northfields resident Mary Horesh started creating the messages and tying them around trees where she had seen poo bags dumped.

She said: "Pre-pandemic on our two-minute walk to school I spotted five bags along a short stretch of Midhurst Road.

"It seemed to me whoever did it thought it was a street cleaners' job to clean up after them.

"The frustrating thing is there is a local shop nearby only five minutes from any of these trees to dispose of the bags."

Mary decided to put up a 'gentle sign' to encourage people to pick up their bags at the same time as not offending other 'responsible' dog owners and so came up with the idea of the signs coming from a dog.

She added: "Strangely the bags disappeared in the lockdown from Christmas but since the easing the bags have been appearing again.

"They are usually all the same distinctive colour, currently a pale purple, so my suspicion is it's one person.

"I put the signs where the poo bags appear in hope to get the message out there."

The 45-year-old believes they have been of some success as after attaching signs to trees with poo bags abandoned by them, she hasn't seen another ditched since.

Fellow resident Jane Ruhland in Northolt has also been penning messages in attempt to reduce the problem in her local area.

Jane was asked by fellow Northolt resident, Eva Smith, to draw a sign after three LAGER Can volunteers spent three hours trying to clear out bagged dog poo out of the bush at the top of Lime Tree Park.

Eva told Nub News: "The day after we cleared the bush, I found three fresh bags and that's when I asked Jane if she could draw something to make people stop and read the sign and hopefully make them rethink.

"Since the day the sign went up, I check every day and I have not found even one bag of poo, but the sign has only been there just over a week.

"I have not told the local people that I actually put the sign there, but so many of them have asked me if I have seen it, saying it's a fantastic sign."

According to the council, it costs the taxpayer nearly £3million a year to clean up streets, parks, remove litter and take action against fly-tipping.

LAGER Can administrator, Cathy Swift, told Nub News: "It's much worse in some places than others.

"I recently came across a patch of grass near a housing development where I found about 20 identical unbagged dog poos.

"It was clear that a single selfish dog owner was responsible for ruining the neighbourhood for everyone else."

But for Mary, putting up these signs is just a 'small part' of being a passionate environmental campaigner.

The mother-of-two and marketing coordinator also runs Ealing Repair Cafe and is part of Ealing Transition, helping them set up climate action projects.

Before her efforts in encouraging dog waste removal, she was already creating 'Craftivism' signs for a different purpose – spreading kindness back into the community during the pandemic.

One sign reading: "In a world where you can be anything, be kind", was placed on Midhurst Road and continues to be on display six months later.

To report an incident of dog fouling click HERE.