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NYC sanitation officials, take note.
Missouri cleanup crews have devised an ingenious — albeit unorthodox — way to combat their mounting dog doody problem: shaming the poop perps.
That’s right, Springfield Environmental Services are literally flagging dog owners who refuse to bag their pet’s waste by planting markers in piles around the city.
The Springfield Police Department uploaded Facebook photos of the new scat standards, which sport “funny and witty” captions such as “Is this your turd? ‘Cuz that’s absurd” and “This is a nudge to pick up the fudge.”
Of course the campaign has its own hashtag: #scoopthepoop.
But the city isn’t just giving citizens crap for the fun of it. Although it’s against city ordinance to abandon your pet’s feces, officials say they pick up 25 pounds of poo a week in city parks and parking lots — at an annual cost of $7,500.
Nonetheless, the shame tactics have drawn mixed responses from the Facebook commentariat. While some lauded the excremental scarlet-lettering, others wondered about the environmental ramifications of leaving a bunch of signs in the grass. Said one naysayer: “Wouldn’t it [be] more productive to pick it up instead of wasting time putting flags in the poop?”
Another commenter scoffed, “Those signs are worse for the environment than the actual poop.”
However, the Springfield Environmental Services pointed out in the same comment section that the flags are made from “bamboo and recycled content paper instead of the more common metal and PVC yard flags seen.” It added that the crews responsible for monthly pet waste disposal would clean up the manure markers during their next sweep.
NYC should take a leaf from Springfield’s potty playbook. Last year, Manhattan was named “New York’s Crappiest Borough” after it recorded the most poop-on-the-street complaints to 311 per square mile. And unfortunately, poo-petrators aren’t limited to canines.
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