Volunteers In Spanish Town Reunite Dog Owners With Poos Left Unscooped

“Hey there, friend. What kind of dog is that you have, the one that just left a poo on the ground that you’re refusing to scoop up? Very interesting — and what’s his pedigree? Nice. Since you aren’t picking it up, I’ll just report your details to the town officials who will find your address so I can mail the poo right back to you. It’ll be like it was never even gone.” That’s the plan of action in one town across the pond, and it’s proving helpful.

You know, we get it. Poop is gross, and (most) people want nothing to do with it, much less have the desire to scoop it up. But that’s the responsibility dog owners take on by the act of owning a pooch. A Spanish town has had enough with forgetful/lazy/sneaky owners who refuse to scoop their own poo, and have developed a somewhat ingenious plan, reports The Local.

Here’s how the poo sting goes down: Volunteers patrol the town of 10,000 on the outskirts of Madrid, cruising for negligent dog owners. Instead of jumping out of the bushes and screaming at them, however, the volunteers strike up a friendly conversation like the one above.

“They’d ask them what the dog’s name and pedigree was. With that information they could find out the address of the pooch’s owner from a registered pet database we have,” a town hall spokesperson said.

The stalwart volunteers would then scoop the poop, box it up and deliver it on the door step of the offending pet owner with a warning, all while a camera person films the entire thing.

As a result, the town estimates that the amount of feces littering the streets has dropped by 70%.

“We didn’t have volunteers tallying up the poo before and after the campaign; our results are based on what neighbours have told us,” the town hall spokesperson told The Local. “We’re not sure either whether the volume of poo has gone down because they’re more afraid of getting their dogs’ excrement delivered back to them than of being fined.”

Spanish town mails dog poo back to owners [The Local]

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