Many common diseases can be transmitted from dog feces to dogs, cats and humans.
These include Giardia, roundworms, hookworms, Salmonell, and E. coli. A dog can
spread parvovirus and coronavirus through infected feces. An infected dog can pass over
a million roundworm eggs everyday. All these diseases can be serious and common,
making it especially important to keep family and pets from any potentially infected
feces.

Flies are also attracted to dog feces, which they consume and in which they lay eggs.
These same flies can them come into your homes and spread disease as they pass from
your counter to your food.

While most dog owners feel it doesn’t apply to their dog, the unfortunate truth is that
most dogs engage in the practice of consuming feces at some point in their life. This is
more prevalent in younger dogs. Cleaning up feces as soon as possible minimizes this
hazard, as well as prevents the possibility of transmitting disease from one dog another.

On a grander scale, dog waste is one of the major pollutants in ground water runoff,
causing contamination to local water.