Good dog owners in New York know to pick up their dog's number twos, but even the best dog owners aren't very careful about where their pups put their number one. And that has some local gardeners upset! So upset, in fact, that one new gardner in Washington Square Park has taken to the New York Times to vent. People, your dog's urine is killing our parks!
The problem is that most dog owners have not only trained their pups to pee onto trees, they think it is good for them. It isn't. The old trope that canine urine is a fertilizer is but a fertile lie:
While urea is rich in nitrogen, and plants require nitrogen for leaf growth, urea is also rich in salt. Remember Carthage? The Romans salted the earth so that no crops would ever grow again. Salt sucks moisture from leaves and roots alike and kills beneficial soil microorganisms. Next time you’re in any park, look at the shrubs at the entrance and on corners; they all have a sad brown arc of dead leaves at the base.
Her argument goes on, but you get the gist. Maybe next time you are out walking the puppy (or perhaps taking them skateboarding?) you'll remember to not let them pee on the plants? If not for the plants themselves, then at least for the poor gardeners who are sick of saying "Excuse me, but did you know that dog pee is bad for plants?" dozens and dozens of times a day.
