Shooting the S--t
August 19, 2006
Addressing the problem of dog waste in the streets of New York, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the Freakonomics column in The New York Times Magazine want to know: "How do we deal with the occasional miscreant who fails to scoop?" ("Dog-Waste Management," October 2, 2005)
In San Fransisco, irresponsible dog owners may soon create a niche for entrepreneurial collectors: the city is interested in a program that would recycle pet waste into methane "to power a turbine to make electricity or to heat homes," according to Reuters ("Dog poop--the next alternative energy source?" February 22, 2006,").
Back in New York the sociopaths are inspiring a local art movement: Sprinkle Brigade. One of my favorite installations is the recent (August 6, 2006) "Law and Order," in the West Village.
Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the Freakonomics column in The New York Times Magazine consider a high-tech proposal to the address the urban nuisance of dog poop that was proposed by Lauren Mecka, a sixth-grader from Hoboken, NJ : DNA sampling ("Dog-Waste Management," October 2, 2005).
It's a good proposal. Both a video and the text of Ms. Mecka's address to the Hoboken City Council is archived online at edmecka.com, "The Hoboken Community Activist Website."
According to Dubner and Levitt, DNA sampling has been proposed for dog waste management independently by civic leaders in Vienna and Dresden, where, unlike Hoboken, it is under consideration.
It might cost about $30 million to establish a DNA sample for all the dogs of New York. If people stop violating the law, then New York has spent $30 million for cleaner streets; if not, the $30 million is seed money for a new revenue stream.
Unfortunately, there's a big drawback to this plan. In order to match a pile of poop with its source, you will need to have every dog's DNA on file - and in 2003, the most recent year on record, only 102,004 dogs [estimated to be 10% of all dogs] in New York were licensed. Even though a license is legally required, costs a mere $8.50 a year and can be easily obtained by mail, most dog owners ignore the law, and with good reason: last year, only 68 summonses were issued in New York City for unlicensed dogs. So even if the DNA plan were enacted today, most offenders would still go unpunished.
In fact, it stands to reason that the typical licensed dog is less likely to offend than the typical unlicensed dog, since the sort of owner who is responsible enough to license his dog is also most likely responsible enough to clean up after it. How, then, to get all of New York's dogs licensed?
How indeed? Mecka suggests
conducting an annual doggie- registration day, [which] could be sponsored by one or more of the major dog food companies held in the spring and promoted as a fun-filled day for pooches and owners alike.
Dubner and Levitt suggest paying people to license their dogs:
Instead of charging even a nominal fee, the city may want to pay people to license their dogs. And then, instead of treating the licensing law as optional, enforce it for real. Setting up random street checks for dog licenses may offend some New Yorkers, but it certainly dovetails nicely with the Giuliani-era ''broken windows'' approach to low-level crime.
via e-mail
In Duboce Park, in San Francisco, Norcal Waste Systems, a solid waste management company, will be implementing a recycling program to collect dog feces in biodegradable baggies and convert it into methane gas. "The methane can be piped directly to a gas stove, heater, turbine or anything else powered by natural gas," as reported by Carolyn Jones, Staff Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle ("Powered by Pooches," February 21, 2006 ).
Continue reading "Poop Power" »
Strummer had a bloody stool a couple of weeks ago. The veterinarian diagnosed "dietary indescretion" and prescribed a bland diet and an antibiotic, the latter to prevent any infection from entering the blood stream through the digestive track. For the next couple of days, Strummer got several small meals a day of steamed chicken and white rice and her antibiotic pill twice a day. After three days on this regimen, I had a new cause of concern: she hadn't pooped in three days. Back to the vet we went, and I learned that I hadn't been feeding her enough for her to make a poop. Though unintentional on my part, underfeeding is in fact a good treatment for an irritated digestive track. The veterinarian checked her out and said I could expect a poop within the next twenty-four hours. Sure enough, that very evening Strummer had a nice, well-formed poop, a little lighter in color than usual, but with good consistency—sticking together but not sticking to the grass—and easy to pick up with a plastic bag.
More information than you needed to know.
But if you're a dog owner, you know that poop speaks louder than words. You keep tabs on your dog's bowels, and if your dog has diarrhea for more than forty-eight hours, or if your dog has not had a bowel movement for forty-eight hours, you call the vet. You bring a sample of your dog's stool to your vet twice a year and have it analyzed for parasites.
But what do you do if you employ a dog walker? Do you get a poop report every day with detailed notes on color, consistency, amount, and time and location of the event(s)?
Your dog walker should be able to answer all these questions and one more equally important question about your dog's poop: Where is it now?
I was speaking recently with a Somerville dog owner, who told me about a dilemma in which she found herself. She has a dog walker, whom she likes a great deal and whom her dog likes a great deal. The dilemma arose because, while in a local park with her children, she happened to espy her beloved dog walker breaking the law by not cleaning up after the dog in her charge.
Your dog's feces is your responsibility. When you hire a dog walker, you should make specific arrangements for waste management. Explain where you keep extra baggies and, if applicable, any other implements for clean-up, where you dog has been trained to do his business1, and where you dispose of the bagged waste. You should also make it clear that her continued employment is contingent on her upholding your standards as a responsible dog owner.
. . .
1One of the most helpful pieces of advice I found when I began to research dog ownership is Sue Sternberg's advice in her book, Successful Dog Adoption, about selecting a potty area:
The potty area should be close to your door. . . . This way, when it rains or snows or you have the flu or sprain an ankle, your dog will be trained to eliminate within a few feet from your door, and you won't have to walk all the way to the park or all the way down the block (156).
Also, if you train your dog to "do it" before he gets to go for a walk, you dog will learn that he gets rewarded with a walk for doing his business. What you don't want is for your dog to learn that he gets "punished" for doing his business, which is exactly what he learns if "walkies" always end after he relieves himself.
Fifteen-year-old, "Sarah" is a member of 4-H. "The first thing they teach you is dog responsibility" her mother says. "Members know they don't leave the house without some plastic bags in their pockets."
Animal Control officers, Health Departments and other city officials in Duxbury, East Bridgewater, Halifax, Marshfield, Middleborough, Pembroke and Plymouth discuss enforcement of pooper-scooper laws in a Boston Globe article, "Region's pet waste laws have bark, but little bite."
Every woman learns how to protect herself from being the victim of a purse snatcher. The following suggestions are from the Volusia County (FL) Sherrif's Office:
- Don't carry a shoulder bag over your shoulder. This makes it easier for a thief to grab your bag, knock you down and injure you.
- Carry a small clutch-type handbag underneath your arm.
- "Fanny packs" are a safe alternative to the traditional purse. They're worn tight and close to the body, making them harder to grab.
- Don't leave your purse in shopping carts or on counters—even for a moment. That's an invitation to a thief.
Responsible dog owners in San Diego might want to review these safety tips: Earlier this week a San Diego dog owner's poop bag was stolen at gunpoint. Fortunately, neither the dog owner nor the dog were hurt during the incident. The woman recovered her poop bag. The perp is still at large.
Thanks to Maya's Adam for sharing this story.
Saturday will be the one-year anniversary of the day that I brought Strummer home.
So I now know what winter is like with a dog. For the most part it's pretty excellent. Snow seems to bring out the puppy (or the child) in all of us.
Unfortunately, while the child in many of us is full of unbridled glee, some of our inner children can be pretty irresponsible. That must explain why there is so much more dog poop that is left un-picked-up in the winter. Dog owners in Boston and Brookline have observed this past winter that responsibility has been lax among their peers. Now it's spring and, in Somerville, we're finally getting the memo: even people who don't have dogs are venturing out into our streets, sidewalks and other public places, and who can blame them for not appreciating what winter has left behind?
Dog poop is bad enough for dog owners. Our dogs can contract really gnarly parasites from poop. Even if your dog doesn't eat poop, some poop-borne parasites can enter your dog's blood-stream through the skin of his pads. I shit you not. And if he fetches a tennis ball that rolled in poop, its as good as if he ate it (the parasite-ridden poop, not the tennis-ball).
On the eve of the first-ever community meeting to discuss options for off-leash recreation in Someville, I beg you please to set a good example and pick-up after your dog. Pick up after other people's dogs while your at it. And for dogs' sake, carry an extra baggie for the bagless.
A caller to Speak Out in The Somerville Journal last week raised the issue of dog urine damaging grass, and a member has also raised this concern on the Somerville Dogs Bulletin Board.
Urine (of all carnivores) has a high nitrogen content, which temporarily burns grass. That same nitrogen is, in fact, a fertilizer that promotes grass growth. If, immediately afterwards, you pour water over the spot where your dog has urinated, you can dilute the nitrogen content, minimizing the burning potential and maximixing the fertilizing potential of the urine ("'Dog-On-It' Lawn Problems").
Strummer has a "litter box," about four feet by four feet square filled with gravel, so there are no urine burns in the grass in our yard. Our yard is not fenced-in, and my guess is that the reason that we don't have urine burns from our neighbors' dogs in our front yard is either that their owners are responsible and don't allow their dogs to urinate in our grass; or that the dogs don't urinate in the same place all the time, and we've had enough rain this year to dilute what urine has been left in our grass.
