Here’s just another example of the contentious nature of dog poo. I’ve blogged about scooping poop a few times since I started blogging for Dogster last year, and those posts have inevitably engendered interesting debate about all kinds of poop-related matters.
To make a long story short: Australian Magistrate Rafaelle Barberio (now an ex-magistrate) let his German Shepherd poo on a walk last March and didn’t clean it up. A couple driving past asked him to pick up “the offending feces,” as one article put it (I love unintentional humor), and he was allegedly quite rude. Then he tried to punch the male driver through the open window, and threatened to throw the now-bagged poo at the couple.
Months later, after a legal proceeding in the case, the 60-year-old judge went to the couple’s home and keyed their Range Rover on both sides, causing $9100 in damages, according to the Herald-Sun. Bad move!
He pleaded guilty to one count of assault, one of criminal damage. Psychiatric records indicated he was grieving over some unresolved issues around the death of his mother (she died in 1975, mind you), and under stress at work and home. The verdict came yesterday: No jail, but a $7500 fine.
The moral: Scoop the poop! And don’t try to punch someone who suggests you do if you don’t! (I know I’m preaching to the choir. Dogsters are pretty much Poop Angels. But I write this just in case anyone else with less impeccable poop manners is reading this.)
