A video that has gone viral where an irresponsible dog walker is confronted on a Saundersfoot beach after not picking up after his pooch, shows that offenders can be shown up and shamed, a local councillor said this week.

Speaking on the YouTube video where a disgruntled member of the public films himself approaching a man on the village’s main beach who has failed to clean up after his dog, Clr. Laurence Blackhall told his colleagues at Tuesday night’s meeting of Tenby Town Council that the public have the right to challenge someone that has broken the rules.

“Whilst I wouldn’t encourage people to necessarily do something as upfront as videoing the matter, which could potentially be confrontational, the clip does show that if you see someone breaking the law by not picking up after their dog, then you can challenge them,” he said, stating that there was nothing wrong with taking a photo of the culprit and reporting them to Pembrokeshire County Council.

Town clerk Andrew Davies told councillors that he’d received a couple of emails last week on the dog fouling problem in Tenby, one from a holidaymaker who said that they loved the resort, but were concerned about the amount of dog mess they had seen on the streets, also highlighting that the path in the area along the South Beach and the golf course into town was particularly bad, with a lack of bins, which had seen people even resort to throwing dog poo bags into trees!

Mr. Davies said that another email from a local resident wanted the people of Tenby to adopt a ‘name and shame’ approach, as even though it was easy to blame visitors, it seemed to be locals that were usually responsible 90 per cent of the time.

“The person said that this was not the first time that they had been forced to report a ‘well known local figure’ for making no attempt to pick up after their dog, and explained that this latest incident occurred on the North Beach where they witnessed a member of the public let their dog foul on the sand and walk away without cleaning it up,” said Mr. Davies, who told councillors that one of county council’s dog wardens had also been informed on the incident and were investigating the matter.

“There should be on the spot fines introduced!” commented Clr. Trevor Hallett.