An eight-year-old boy fell face first in a dog mess while playing rugby on a pitch where the animals are banned.
Jake, 8, from Blackwood, had an incredibly “close call” after falling face-first in dog poo while playing rugby at Newbridge RFC with the feces narrowly missing his eye. Dogs are banned from the field where they play their matches.
Ben Harding, 36, Jake’s father, is now urging dog owners to stay away from prohibited areas amid fears a child could be seriously harmed by the feces.
The worrying incident happened on a Welsh pitch as Jake was warming up for his under 9s rugby game at Newbridge RFC on Sunday. The feces hardly avoided the boy’s eye, in what his father has described as a “close call.” Mr. Harding said that he thought it was just mud.
Mr. Harding, who also coaches at the club, said: “We’d set up on the football pitch. We’d marked a playing area up with cones which is firstly always inspected by coaches and the referee prior to playing.”
“Some of the players were warming up on the side of the pitch where their parents stand. I noticed my son had what I initially thought was mud on the side of his face.”
“However, it wasn’t the right color to be the mud from the pitch, and obviously smelling it we discovered it was dog poo. It didn’t go into his eye but it was on the side of his forehead and face. It was a close call, it could have been a lot worse,” he added.
Being a first-aid trained and a dog owner himself, Mr. Harding said he was shocked to discover a mess on a pitch where the pets are banned and said in the worst-case scenario a child could be blinded.
He also said that Jake hadn’t been aware of the feces on his face at first, but was upset to discover how dangerous the situation could have been for him.
Newbridge RFC issued a warning on its Facebook page following the incident. They discouraged dog owners from taking their pets to the fields.
It said: “Fortunately this didn’t go in his eyes but as you can see it’s a very close escape and could have been life-changing for him and his family if it had.
Newbridge Canal fields is a No Dog Zone as placed by the council. But still members of our community still walk their dogs there and allow them to (defecate) on the fields where the youngsters of our community play.”
“This isn’t acceptable behavior and needs to stop I would urge anyone who witnesses people allowing their dogs to mess on the field with not a care in the world to clean it up to report the individual before I am writing an entirely different post where a child had lost their sight or worse,” it added.
Mr. Harding explained: “The children go to rugby to enjoy it and have fun and this is the last thing they want. It could have been worse, he could have been pulled off or taken away from the match completely and taken to hospital due to someone being irresponsible and not cleaning up after their dog.”
Newbridge RFC is a Welsh Rugby Union Club based in Newbridge, Caerphilly in South Wales. Newbridge RFC was formed in 1888 and joined the WRU in 1911.