Although the No. 1 way of dealing with people not picking up their dogs’ poop will always and forever be mailing it back to them, this one is pretty good: Shaming them on Facebook. Residents of South Oxford Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, are planning to do just that, after repeated violations of a central tenet of the be-a-good-neighbor policy — picking up after your dog — by soon-to-be-shamed individuals.
How will it work? Well, at this point, it’s more of a call to arms by Abby Weissman, the South Oxford Street Block Association president. He’s had enough of people flagrantly refusing to unfurl a plastic bag, bend at the knee, and finish their dogs’ damn business. He’s particularly concerned about the area right outside his building. After he caught, on camera, a woman watching her dog defecate while chatting on her phone and then strolling away like it was 1972 and she didn’t just do something completely shameful, Weissman did something.
He posted the video to the neighborhood’s Facebook page, and shame the woman. Check out the video here. It’s a doozy.
Here’s the text he posted:
For years block residents have been loudly complaining about people who think they are exempt from having to clean up after their dogs. Dog s*** is discussing and toxic. There are no excuses for this behavior. If you can’t clean up after your dog you shouldn’t have one. And it is a $250 fine. In the belief that it is only a few people who allow this to happen, we always wanted a photo or video or someone actually letting their dog s*** and purposefully leaving it there. Here it is, thanks to Dropcam. Please submit any other images you have to our Dog Walkers Hall of Shame.
In Brooklyn there’s a law against not scooping your dog’s poop: the so-called pooper-scooper law, which can land you a $250 fine. Since 2013, 63 of these have been issued, according to DNAinfo. Unfortunately, an officer has to witness the incident to issue a ticket.
Weissman told DNAinfo that he cleans up dog poop “all the time.”
“For years block residents have been loudly complaining about people who think they are exempt from having to clean up after their dogs,” he said. “There are no excuses for this behavior.”
As for why Oxford Street seems to be a focal point for dog poop, it’s on the way to Fort Greene Park, which is described as a “mecca” for dogs.
What do you think? Is Facebook shaming the way to go? Would you like to put any offenders you know on such a page? Let us know in the comments.
Via DNAinfo
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