Given the price of pet food, vet visits and boarding kennels, you wouldn’t have thought free poop bags was the deal-breaker that persuaded many dog-owners they could afford their four-legged friend.

But for residents in Copenhagen, the dog waste bags have been freely distributed at various points around the capital, often next to contained areas where Fido can roam freely without a lead.

However, from January 1 they will no longer be available, confirms Morten Kabell, the outgoing deputy mayor for technical and environmental affairs.

Saves half a million kroner a year
According to Kabell, it costs 500,000 kroner a year to make the bags available, and this money is needed elsewhere in the municipal budget.

The news has not gone down well with dog owners, according to TV2 News.

“I think it sends a bad signal,” Birger Andersen from Copenhagen told the broadcaster.

“We’re always talking about how Copenhagen is a dirty city. It makes me really angry. Every single dog turd rescued from lying on the ground helps to increase hygiene.”