A warm sunny day provides a lovely setting for a poo in Cottontail Park:
Author Archive for
29
Feb
12
sunny day, lovely pu-bar
This just in:
The Chicago Park District has freed Fluffy from the 30# chain link, and they are trying to convey important information about picking up after your pooch, however they have now come up with puzzling new lingo…
What does it mean to LEASH-CURB your pet????
– Puzzled in the South Loop
These new signs have been showing up around area parks:
26
Feb
12
Featured poo for 2.26.12
Here’s this week’s featured poo!
This one’s a sturdy little poo near Clark & 15th:
Is this your poo? Let us know – we’d love to get to know you!
25
Feb
12
Green Dog Walkers
Here’s an initiative that we also heard about on the BBC Scotland show ‘The Scoop on Poop‘ (audio available until 2/27/12) – the Green Dog Walkers project.
Green Dog Walkers is a friendly, non-confrontational way to change attitudes towards dog fouling. Green Dog Walkers are volunteers who have taken a pledge to always clean up after their dog, and carry extra dog waste bags so they can give a bag to anyone who finds themselves without one.
How do you become a Green Dog Walker?
- You sign the Green Dog Walkers® Pledge
- You get a Green Dog Walkers® Armband to wear when you’re out and about with little Frou-frou!
There’s a major publicity effort behind this initiative, so that the public is aware of what it means.
If you see someone wearing a Green Dog Walkers wrist/armband it means they have taken the pledge to:
- always clean up after their dog
- carry extra doggie bags
- gladly give you a poop bag for your dog – just ask.
It’s an interesting idea. Don’t want people beating each other over dog poo. Instead, make it known that you’re a friendly Green Dog Walker, ready to lend a hand (or bag, as it were).
23
Feb
12
Curb your dog!! in Canaryville
A discussion popped up on EveryBlock Chicago about a month ago: ‘Curb your dog!!‘
Canaryville is a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago that “stretches from Fortieth to Forty-Seventh Street between Wentworth Avenue and Halsted”.
Aside from the usual – urban poop is a problem everywhere in the city – what’s interesting about the post was that several commenters brought up the problems with the term ‘Curb your Dog‘.
What on earth does “Curb Your Dog” mean anyway? Perhaps we, and the signs, need to say “Pick Up Your Dog’s Waste Or You Will Be Ticketed!” instead of using some arcane expression to pussyfoot around.
Right on, jim m.!
Whereas Jennifer says:
Curb your dog – you or your landlord owns the property in front of your house (your front yard or steps). the “curb” area is owned by the city. “Curbing” your dog means having them do their business on the “community” property – the area by the curb.
And Kitty chimes in again:
Okay well they are not using the curb they are literally leaving the poop on the side of my fence or in front of my home. I am really annoyed by this..
A lot of people in Canaryville are annoyed at having to clean up after other people’s dogs!
Just like in the South Loop!
21
Feb
12
Dog Fouling And Red Rubber Bands
Looks like we’ve found the South Poop of England, too.
Check out the site: Dog Fouling and Red Rubber Bands.
There’s some explanation for the ‘Red Rubber Bands’ that makes sense to the British, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. Whatever…
Lots of good stuff there.
And, it seems like their speciality is… dog poo music!
There have been many songs published on this blog. Needless to say, they have varied in quality. Once in a while, a good song thrusts itself at us. I can truly say this of this rendition of “Poop my Shoe”. It almost had tears welling up in my eyes. I love the way it doesn’t focus just on dog faeces but covers a broad spectrum of animal deposits. I challenge you to listen without experiencing a wide range of emotional reactions.
We heard about Dog Fouling and Red Rubber Bands on the BBC Scotland show ‘The Scoop on Poop‘ (audio available until 2/27/12). Take a listen.
Please, let the French explain it to you:
No, the dog poop is not fertilizer! For what has the slightest interest in the land, it should be composted.
The poop left on a green space has no benefit to the parks or gardens, on the contrary. The urine burns the grass and dog droppings can remain for several weeks before disintegrating, which poses a real health problem. It contains germs, bacteria and parasites that are harmful to human health but also for all the dogs that shall put the nose to it.
The least we can say is that dog poop is not a decorative element that friends of the gardens enjoy, and what about its effect on children playing in the grass in the spring or summer?
It is also an issue of respect for the work of the gardener. They do not like most that pedestrians have the dog poop underfoot.
That’s why even in green spaces, it is essential to pick up!
This video has been around a while. Pretty weird.
??????????????????Please Vote to Dog Poop Insurance!
Yes, it’s real –
Ever stepped in dog poop and ruined your fave kicks? Well you need Sneaker Freaker Dog Poop Insurance! Thanks to our mates in Japan, Sneaker Dog Poop Insurance could become a reality. All you need to do is watch the video below then VOTE. If we get 100,000 votes a Japanese insurance agency will actually offer this service (we’re not making this up!).
16,414 “Yes I love it” votes as of Feb 13. Looks like they won’t have enough to go forward with the plan.
Too bad for sneaker-wearers everywhere.
Thanks to a Friend of South Poop:
“This little dog must have spectacular hind end awareness, and the skills of an acrobat!”
Proprioception is so important for the modern dog.
You may have heard about a plan in New Taipei City, Taiwan to hold a dog poo lottery last year. The idea was for people to turn in bags of poo and receive a lottery ticket in return. The prize – ingots of gold.
Turns out the plan was “a big success“.
We checked and found this BBC report from last December:
A woman in her 50s won the top prize – a gold ingot worth $2,200 (£1,400). […] The woman who won is among a team of neighbourhood volunteers who already helped to clean up the streets, including by picking up dog mess.
It’s nice that a poo angel won the prize!
Better, the plan worked:
The BBC’s Cindy Sui in Taipei says that it has been credited with halving the amount of dog mess in the city, which is near the capital.
But it looks like a one-time-only scheme:
They say the city simply cannot afford to keep exchanging dog poo for gold.
You think?
Too bad for everybody.
But it makes you wonder – could a lottery like this be implemented anywhere? You don’t have to give away gold ingots (yes, “smaller gold ingots, worth several hundred dollars, were given to four other prizewinners“). What if you just had ‘normal’ prizes, like a coupon to your favorite eatery?
How about the South Loop Poo Lottery?
Certainly would bring international attention to Chicago, maybe the City boosters would go for it…
Shanghaiist thinks it's a great idea, too.
It’s sometimes, uh, interesting to review the search terms that led to South Poop. By far the most frequent is
what does curb your dog mean
and, by far our most accessed post is ‘Curb your ‘Curb Your Dog”. But here are a few of the other terms used over the past 30 days:
beautiful flowchart
revenge on people who dont pick up dog shit
???? “pile of poo”
ergonomic goat poop scoop
teacuppoo
so dachshund glad you’re here someone pooped in the hallway
you are only worth as much as your dog’s poop
the best ever poop area designed for a dog
immoral purpose dog shit
13
Feb
12
Scene of the crime
12
Feb
12
Featured poo for 2.12.12
11
Feb
12
Beauty on the beast
A pretty vanilla rant about poo from a blog in Norway…but you gotta love the picture:
I call it "Beauty on the Beast"
10
Feb
12
The concept of poo radius
We’ve noticed that when we take our dogs out they always poo nearby our house. We can estimate using Google maps that their poo radius is about 300 feet. Are other dogs the same?
We don’t know, yet. But the observation prompts an interesting idea…
Dog poos are not transported by the gods, nor dropped by the birds, nor, generally, left by trekkers traveling miles from home.
They are left behind by our neighbors. Can we be more precise than that?
Which neighbors?
It’s a pretty obvious idea when you think about it, and we all probably implicitly do come to the obvious conclusion: the neighbors nearby. But perhaps if we could come up with a quantitative spin on this we could make that intuition more concrete, and perhaps, more useful.
Consider the ‘probability of poo’ distribution function. The probability is low at distances close to zero (people generally won’t let their pups poo right at the foot of their steps, for example, but someone else’s steps, that’s another matter!) – and then the probability increases with distance, reaching a maximum at some point, and then decreasing as you get farther and farther from home.
There’s probably a right way to do this – collect data from a team of “dog-poo reporters” in order to establish the shape of the distribution function, P(p|d) (the probability of a poo (p) at a distance (d) from home). Then use that prior distribution and a little Bayesian statistics to ask: given the occurrence of an orphan poo at location y, what’s the probability that the poo-coward lives distance x away?
(There must be additional variables, too – poo behavior near a single family home will be different from near a condo, behavior near a front door will be different from a back door, a poo-friendly surface will facilitate poo, winter walks will be shorter than summer walks, etc, etc.)
This might take a lot of work.
But let’s take the easy way out. Imagine that there’s a single poo radius for all dogs (something we admit we have not established) and that the radius is 300 feet (something that might also vary – perhaps FrouFrou goes right away, while hefty Gorgon needs to walk a while to stir things up).
If we can make that simplification, then we can come up with this:
An interesting visualization of something that’s not usually made explicit, isn’t it?
It suggests that we can identify the pool of candidate poo-cowards by simply mapping the position of the orphan-poo.
The five locations identified in the map are recurring poo-hotspots at the southern end of the South Loop:
- Mary Jones Richardson Park
- The 1401 S. State Impact Zone
- Coliseum Park DPFA
- Poo Alley
- Wabash, South of 16th
Each of these sites, some of which are ongoing areas of poo crisis, others that ebb and flow, is created by someone, or several someones, who can be located within a specific geographic pool of residents of the South Loop.
Take MRJ Park, #1 – that site can be assigned to residents of the northern end of the Dearborn Park II development.
Site #2 – ha! 1401 S. State.
And Poo Alley, Site #4 – that one can be assigned to Dearborn Tower (1530 S. State), with residents of Burnham Station and Dearborn Mews perhaps also contributing.
This suggests that it could be possible to use a targeted strategy to address the (local) problem of orphan poo. Find a developing poo-crisis at some location? Then identify the dog owners in the buildings that lie within the poo-radius. Distribute informational leaflets. Talk to them. Instead of writing angry letters about the ‘torrent of dog urine and feces turning [the] urban lawn into a fetid, stinking mire of matted, brown mush‘, a poo-advocate could simply notify the 25 (say) surrounding dog-households to put each on notice that one of them was creating a developing poo-crisis.
Prediction: problem solved.
09
Feb
12
An American “poop fairy”
Thanks to Keep Britain Tidy, the English did it first, but did they do it better?
Now, folks in Colorado are trying it:
But as we all know, there are poo fairies and poo angels all around us.
Like Poop Fairy on Facebook. Or not.
08
Feb
12
Dogkisser blog
There’s a blog out of Canada that came to our attention when its author commented here (when we first started). She had clearly thought a lot about dog poo, dog parks and dogs in society. It’s worth checking out: the DogKisser Blog.
Here are her posts about poop. This author has a ton of observations that are relevant and useful to us.
Example: the need for trash pickup and bag supply to raise compliance. Otherwise, any policy is neglectful and disingenuous:
What do I think would raise compliance and make people start picking up their dogs’ poop?
- Poop bags at all entrances to Point Pleasant Park.
- GARBAGE CANS to put the poop bags in – and people to EMPTY THE GARBAGE CANS.
- City staff in the parks to FINE PEOPLE who DON’T pick up their dogs poop.
Those 3 things would raise compliance by about 1000%. Right now people know that they can get away with not picking up their dogs poop. So why should they? If there’s no consequences – there’s going to be NO COMPLIANCE. It’s pretty simple.
You can put all the flags in poop that you want. But if you don’t give dog owners some tools to deal with the poop – you’re being VERY disingenous. And unfair.
Example: poo should be considered best as litter; but dog owners are judged as a class:
I liken dog shit to Tim Horton’s cups – people throw them away everywhere – and you see them everywhere, but you’d never consider shutting down any Tim Horton’s coffee shops because of people throwing away their cups irresponsibly instead of putting them into garbage receptacles. Simply because you can assign a niche demographic to place blame on – does not mean that you can shut down access to public space to the whole of that demographic for the irresponsibility of a small minority.
That is completely wrong – and non-sensical as shutting down every Tim Hortons because of their cups being thrown away on street corners. It’s exactly the same thing.
p.s. What’s a Tim Horton’s, eh?
A friend of South Loop sent us these:
"Three colors from a three course meal?? and fresh!!"
"This pile is packed so perfectly!!"
06
Feb
12
Unicode character ‘pile of poo’
This is too cool. We now have an internationally recognized Unicode character ‘PILE OF POO‘.
The bad news? The only font that I can find that supports this new, internationally recognized, and computationally defined character symbol for Poo is ‘Symbola‘. That’s fine, I guess. You can download the font files and install them on your own computer so that you can write a Word doc incorporating the symbol. But it means that we can’t use this symbol on our site because your browser probably won’t support it! (You just get this:
05
Feb
12
Featured poo for 2.5.12
Here’s this week’s featured poo!
Dry poo-kibble on the Wabash sidewalk south of 16th:
Want your poo featured on South Poop? Let us know!
04
Feb
12
a Pleiades of poo
Pleiades:
Poo:
03
Feb
12
Poop Slope
Looks like the South Poop of NYC!
Presumably coming to you from Park Slope, Brooklyn.
This is a cool site – take a look. Lots of pictures with that special sophisticated New York flair!
More art than analytical, but sometimes, you need some art, doncha?
How about this, for example –
“a deconstruction of the notion that poop, when abandoned, deconstructs”
Only a Po-Mo Art Student from New York City could have come up with a sentence like that!
(You might also be interested in the fine photography at another NYC site – Dogs Shitting on Sidewalks)
01
Feb
12
Bad news about Takkie Kakkie
We posted about Takkie Kakkie, the family game a while ago. 
Now that it’s been available on Amazon for a while, there’s some bad news.
The newer reviews for ‘Doggie Doo‘ (as it’s called in the US) are not that great. Seventeen (17) one star reviews??
Here are some:
- Complete Junk
- Big Disappointment
- Doggie does not Doo
- Waste of money
- Broke within 30 minutes
- Name suits it because it’s a REALLY CRAPPY toy!!!
If the little plastic dog is ‘constipated’… well then the game can’t be much fun, now can it?
That seems to be the take-home from these reviews – and we’re all poorer for it.
But there’s also this review from ‘no prude’:
Really? You want a game about dog poop?
I’m no prude, but unless your goal is to teach your kids that being crass is cool and potty humor will advance their character, why would you spend a nickel on this product? This game lowers the bar for preschool and elementary children.With so many positive and educational choices out there, save your money and pass on this ridiculous game.
Feh.
Lady, take a pill and start picking up after your dog. If there ever was an idea for an ‘educational game’, this one was it.
From the Village Voice, of all places –
Yet in one neighborhood, reports F’d in Park Slope, the shit has gone past hitting the fan and is instead being bagged, along with a kindly urban etiquette note asking the poo-creator’s (a/k/a, dog’s) owner to please stop letting the dog go to the bathroom in the “tree pits” and then also, to please stop just leaving the poo there.
30
Jan
12
European design at its best
Forget Questo, Swedish Design House, even Foscarini.
Just take a look at these dog poo bags and weep:
“Turn the less attractive moments in the life of a dog owner into an original happening.”
Buy them here: http://www.poopoobags.com/
(via lovelypackage.com)
29
Jan
12
More poop at MRJ park
Mary Richardson Jones Park, again.
Our correspondent writes:
I left one of my custom made flags with each of the orphan loads but this time I decided not to adopt them. Rather, I left them there for a pick up later. I think leaving the orphans there with the flag makes more of a statement than my previous adoption strategy. Hopefully the neighbors will become a little more aware. I’m also hoping to alert the person leaving the mess that someone is actively pursuing them.
This time, we got some great pictures!
Those are some awesome signs. “Decided not to adopt them“, indeed!
Looks like things are heating up at MJR park!
29
Jan
12
Featured poops for 1.29.12
So, we’ve got some new poo flags!
– and, so today’s featured poos are in Coliseum Park, and in the Coliseum Park Dog Run:
Thanks to this tip:
we flagged seven (7) poos along Wabash and into Coliseum Park.
Thanks for the tip! And keep ’em coming!
Within ten feet of each other along poo alley.
One poop:
Two poop:
Three poop, and four!
And a monster wet one was across the street – too gross to capture, take our word for it!
27
Jan
12
Direct action at Jones park
A friend of South Poop writes:
Since the snow has melted over the past couple of days an abundance of abandoned poop has been revealed at Mary Jones Richardson Park (Park 479).
I had an idea. I made some make shift flags out of skewers that say “Abandoned turd adopted by XXX” on one side. On the other side it says “Clean Your Poop!” “Identify and report those who do not!”
So I picked up the aforementioned turds at MJR Park and then replaced each with a flag.
I think it would be pretty cool if that went on around other parts of the neighborhood. It would alert neighbors that someone is abandoning turds. It would also let the perpetrator know they are being watched and likely to be very embarrassed when caught.
How about the South Poop promotional potential too?
Let it not be forgotten that the overwhelming majority of dog owners in the neighborhood are responsible. If they weren’t we would be up to our necks in shit.
First of all – thanks to our correspondent for the shout-out to South Poop!
Second – great idea! And one we’ve been considering for a while.
We’re going to move forward on this – look for South Poop poo flags in your neighborhood soon!
01
Dec
11
Is Coliseum Park going to hell?
We’re hearing reports that there’s dog poo all over the Coliseum Park Dog Run and that the adjacent grassy park area is also a mess of poo!
What’s going on?
If you’ve seen people walking away from their poo please please please let us know. Better yet, send us a quick picture and we’ll post it here.
The last thing we need now is some a*$*hole leaving shit all over.
Let’s get ’em. If you have specific ideas about what to do, please leave them in the Comments.
29
Oct
11
Science meets poo. Poo loses.
Science meets poo. Poo loses.
The AshPoopie is coming!
What is the AshPoopie, you ask? We’re glad you did!
Behold:
Quite simply, the AshPoopie turns your dog’s poop into a sterile pile of ash.
27
Oct
11
The Big Dogs have their revenge
Call out the small dogs will you?
The Big Dogs have had their revenge.
We found some fatties in the gravel at Grant Bark Park:
A pretty little poo in a sea of Fall color –
Your dog is an artiste!
07
Oct
11
Holy crap, batman!
“Superhero’s Main Weapon Against Apathy: Dog Poop”
…the Czech Republic’s latest superhero, […] whose primary superpower involves smearing dog poop on impolite dog walkers and then running away before he gets his ass kicked.
Yikes. Insane.
But, perhaps, oh so effective! 🙂
Who was that masked man? 
05
Oct
11
Magic Poop Collector
It comes in “eight sizes and three colors!”
Oh, if only it were true…
22
Sep
11
to post, or not to post?
A friend sent us this discussion going on over at the West Loop’s Mary Bartelme Park PAC Facebook page – seems that someone ‘took a picture of the droppings‘ and caught a poo coward in the act.
The question: to post, or not to post?
The vote:
- Post pics of dog poo. 7
- Don’t post pics of dog poo. 1
- Tut-tut-tut, dog poo! 2
We look forward to seeing the pics! Maybe they’ll show up here! 🙂
The City of Chicago provides a portal to a lot of different records of City activity, and in a follow up to our previous post (‘What’s really going on…‘), we’ve pulled the 311 Sanitation Code complaints for 2011.
The data is out there: “Dog feces in yard”.
These are the complaints for 2011 (1/1/11 – 8/22/11):
Date Code Violation? Street Address 01/01/2011 Dog feces in yard 1411 W 114TH PL 01/02/2011 Dog feces in yard 3672 W GRAND AVE 01/03/2011 Dog feces in yard 5058 W CRYSTAL ST 01/04/2011 Dog feces in yard 9914 S CALHOUN AVE 01/04/2011 Dog feces in yard 6018 W ADDISON ST 01/04/2011 Dog feces in yard 6148 S RUTHERFORD AVE 01/05/2011 Dog feces in yard 816 N LEAVITT ST 01/05/2011 Dog feces in yard 9625 S HALSTED ST 01/05/2011 Dog feces in yard 3342 N OSAGE AVE 01/05/2011 Dog feces in yard 3344 N OSAGE AVE 01/05/2011 Dog feces in yard 2043 N KILDARE AVE 01/06/2011 Dog feces in yard 7340 S DAMEN AVE 01/06/2011 Dog feces in yard 1365 W CRYSTAL ST 01/07/2011 Dog feces in yard 10343 S VERNON AVE 01/07/2011 Dog feces in yard 6425 S FAIRFIELD AVE 01/08/2011 Dog feces in yard 1723 W 33RD PL 01/08/2011 Dog feces in yard 1716 N WINCHESTER AVE 01/10/2011 Dog feces in yard 7831 S RHODES AVE 01/11/2011 Dog feces in yard 1130 N MASON AVE 01/13/2011 Dog feces in yard 1111 N WELLS ST 01/14/2011 Dog feces in yard 8507 S THROOP ST
But wait… there’s more! (Scroll to the end for a map.)
Continue reading ‘Hundreds and hundreds of complaints about poo’
The area we once termed Poo Alley – the stretch of Dearborn Street south of Cottontail Park providing access to the service and parking entrance at Dearborn Tower – has recently been relatively quiescent, a poor destination for dog poo sightseeing.
Today, Poo Alley returns with a vengeance!
The image has been pixelated for sensitive eyes.
We hope this is not a harbinger of things to come!
24
Aug
11
poo crisis? what poo crisis?
Recently we passed by Sky55, site of the infamous poo crisis of May 2011.
What poo crisis?
No, there was no poo everywhere. We didn’t have to scrape our shoes after walking by the entrance. It didn’t smell bad.
But there are some large planters outside. And it does seem that Frou-frou and her pals are being lifted up or leaping into them so that they can go poo.
But that’s all we could find.
Maybe direct action neighbor-to-neighbor has taken its course. Good to see – and a reminder perhaps that it doesn’t take a lot to create a crisis, nor to alleviate one.
Is it premature to congratulate the residents of 1255 S. Michigan?
22
Aug
11
a masterpiece
?
the girl and the dog they were fine
until they left a doody, that’s a crime!
?
Dog Doogity deserves its own post:
20
Aug
11
now, this is a dog toilet
Turns out there’s a nice dog toilet in our corner of the South Loop, located in the alley just behind 1720 S. Michigan.
Our guess? Fido and his pal walk out the back door of the building into the alley every morning in order to leave a nice big poo. What’s interesting for us is that these look like they are all poos from the same dog. This is not a community toilet. This is Fido’s private place. We’ve seen it before.
Here’s a week’s worth of poos in various states of decay (count ’em all):
Look out for Fido here:
Have you been worn out of one’s canine helping himself throughout the spot?
Indeed!
Internet content slave branmil93 has generated a beautifully butchered essay on poo bags:
Have you been worn out of one’s canine helping himself throughout the spot? Will you be tired of stepping on canine waste when you walk around your house or compound? Do you think you’re exhausted of having dog poop in your way while you have on your good highly-priced sneakers? Perfectly there is an answer to this difficulty which is by investing in dog poop bags.
These bags are a revolution for dog entrepreneurs that have stubborn dogs that don’t poop in the right put. These bags are superb and fit your every single day desires. That you are in a position effortlessly do waste management.
Stubborn dogs that don’t poop in the right put.
This is awesome. More over the fold –
Continue reading ‘The excellent characteristics of dog poop bags’
06
Jul
11
Poo coward fined £770
The city takes action… in Leeds, UK.
So what did it take?
Peter Haddington of Prospect Place, Bradford was reported to Leeds City Council’s dog warden service after three witnesses saw him fail to pick up after his dog, on a two separate occasions in Calverley Park, in January and February this year.
He’ll have to pay “a £100 fine, an additional £655.25 in costs plus a £15 victim surcharge“.
“Victim surcharge“??
For you Americans, £770 is about $1245 US dollars.
Yes, that’s a lot!
04
Jul
11
it happens everywhere
In San Francisco, CA, “Bernalwood Resident Besieged By Rogue Dog Poop Issues Emergency SOS”
02
Jul
11
iScoopy Pal
Looks like Poopsta has a run for its money! Check out these stylishly decorated poop containers for the modern urban girl with fashion sense! More of teh Awesome.
This seems to be a thoughtfully designed device (and I don’t mean just the Eiffel Towers!). Some of the design goals:
- Eliminates Feel – iScoopy Pal™ isolates the hand from contact with dog poop. It exemplifies a light, flexible, ergonomic design customized for the human hand yet sturdy enough for scooping dog waste for Zero touch.
- Alleviates Sight – Minimizes sight during and after scooping by completely enclosing the dog waste. By providing a visual barrier between the dog owner and the waste, iScoopy Pal™ eases an unpleasant responsibility.
- Manages Smell – Odors stemming from dog excrements are generally unbearable. iScoopy Pal™ offers several natural fragranced scents to mask these odors.
- Enables Effective Scoop – An ergonomic design that eliminates feel, alleviates sight, and manages smell enabling the owner to effectively remove dog poop using a single scooping motion for zero mess.
Here’s the video:
Perfect for the up-and-coming, modern, and stylish South Loop of Chicago!
30
Jun
11
poo?
You do find your poo in the funniest places.
This one was on the ledge a few days after gravel was delivered to Grant Bark Park.
28
Jun
11
Don’t be Bob!
More from our friends at Snohomish County, WA.
We hear that they have some good ‘shrooms out there. How else to explain some of their creativity?
Like this:
A couple of discussions of poop as a moral issue. OMFG.
We asked recently WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?), and concluded based on the tweets of some of His followers, the He would probably not pick up His Dog’s poo.
Today, we ask, WWARD (What Would Ayn Rand Do)?
This question is considered by {dan-oliver} in “Atlas Shrugged (While Walking His Dog)“. He asks –
Is it immoral to neglect picking up after your pooch?
He notes “Because I am responsible for the actions of my dog, then I am also responsible for its bodily functions, as this is in itself an action, albeit a fairly routine one.” Indeed. But I have to admit getting lost with the somewhat forced connections made in the following discussion:
When one doesn’t pick up after their own, there is less incentive for the next person to do so. Atlas Shrugged is a compelling example of what happens to society when, due to indifference and decreased incentive, it’s most productive members stop producing. What would happen if we stopped the motor of the clean-up-after-your-dog world?
Ouch. The ‘motor of the clean-up-after-your-dog-world‘!?!?! Where are we going with this? Have we really addressed what, exactly, the Objectivist take on dog poop might be?
I’m not so sure.
A link in that post leads to another “5 Situations Where It’s Morally OK” to leave dog poop behind.
‘Morally OK‘, indeed. Read them for yourselves.
Framing the issue as “Dog poop crimes“, as one considered a ‘Moral‘ question, as one where a person can feel ‘Morally Justified‘, or not… Does this have any value for taking action in our community? Or is it simply the relic of a very old, very stale world of ‘BAD’ and ‘GOOD’?
24
Jun
11
Ah, public toilets for dogs!
Or, as they would say in Pune, India, “Loos for Pets”.
So, is this an idea that will go over in the South Loop?
Dog toilet design
A urine block is made using rough soil and fine sand. For dog excreta, special chambers covered with mesh that will be easy to use are planned. “We need to avoid unwanted use for any other purpose. We also want to avoid dog fights inside the toilet compound area, as some dogs can be quite aggressive,” Gore said. “The importance of these toilets shall be described to citizens. Training certain dogs to make use of these places is another task we wish to begin.”
Indeed! This is really a lovely idea…
And it seems to be a serious proposal!
“The authorities are thinking about it,” said Gore. With 4,000 registered dog lovers facing problems of health and hygiene, the initiative has been welcomed. Gore’s plan is to begin with a ward at Nigdi Pradhikaran or Chinchwad station first. Each pet toilet is estimated to cost Rs 50,000 and, according to the proposal, at least 12 to 15 shall be installed at various spots.
To lift the picture and caption illustrating the article – Are they toilet trained?
22
Jun
11
More Poop in the South Loop
Somebody likes to poop in the same place over and over again:
21
Jun
11
Doggie Doo – The Family Game!
Yes, great news! Takkie Kakkie comes to the US… finally! We ran into this game earlier in our post “Funny Action Against Heap“. Now, we can all buy one for ourselves!
What is Doggie Doo? It’s “the Original Dog that Goes Doo!” This is truly awesome. Kids, feed your pup some treats… and out comes his poo! It’s fun for the whole family.
And, apparently, the game is taking the world by storm – they say you can buy Doggie Doo at Walmart, Target, and ToysRUs! The game has 90% Five Star reviews at Amazon.com… “Pooping puppy hilarious!“, “The game was a hit in Europe“, “I’m 52 and I love this game!“, “This is a dog lover’s best friend“.
Awesome!
This video is insane:
But, it may be a way of the future for addressing urban dog poop!
Let’s do it guys – Doggie Do’s for everybody!
20
Jun
11
a smattering of poos
A correspondent provides this image of a smattering of poos at a local ‘Dog Poo Friendly Area‘:
We count eleven (11) poos in there! From dogs of all sizes!
The story from Vienna, Austria has an intriguing headline: Vienna Stuck In Dog Poo Debate
One blogger said she assumed the posters were showing chocolate cupcakes when she first noticed them before realising what the idea behind the campaign might be.
Looks like a serious campaign though – quoting from the article “Around 2,800 dispensers providing free plastic bags have been set up across the city in the past months.” That’s a serious effort.
Anyone wonder if Chicago is up to matching Vienna?
17
Jun
11
poopbags.com
Y’all should check out the very active Facebook page for poopbags.com. Lots of posts extolling the stories, the virtues, and the triumphs of green poop bags!
Our mission is to provide a Green-N-Easy way to help save the Earth, one poop at a time!
They hold occasional contests, too! You can vote for the best funny ad for Poopbags.com for one more day!
(We’ve highlighted their blog The Load Down before.
And According to Gus gives them a big thumbs up!)
30
May
11
wwjd?
http://twitter.com/#!/JudyLuvsJesus/status/74991525725081600
http://twitter.com/#!/QueenB_SODMG/status/74995376976961536
Can we conclude that Jesus Himself would never pick up His Dog’s poop?
26
May
11
Poo crisis
http://twitter.com/#!/southpoop/status/73381293160800256
http://twitter.com/#!/sldogpac/status/73530225727774720
http://twitter.com/#!/FiorettiChicago/status/73539090296995840
http://twitter.com/#!/MissYouPluto/status/73552616994521088
12
May
11
Your Dog
Thank you, Pastor Grandberry!
29
Apr
11
Sprinkle Brigade
Those New York City Artists are at it again! 
- If you enjoy dog poo as the decorative arts!
- If you enjoy the post-modern yet not-so-serious whimsy of the modern starving artist!
- If you want to really take ART back to the streets!
- If you enjoy your dog poo contextualized within the representational space of the New York artistic elite!
Then : : : SPRINKLE BRIGADE : : : is the place for you!
Over the fold to check out some of their awesome ‘pieces’!
27
Apr
11
Fresh Wet Ones
Little Johnny is so proud to have left these big fresh wet ones at the park!
He hopes that Mommy will pick them up later, but he wants us to enjoy them first!
Thanks Little Johnny! Thanks Ruff!
12
Apr
11
Best wishes to the Royal Couple
Finally! A nicely decorated Poopsta. Works great!
07
Apr
11
Poo droplets
A teacupper’s present for April, “poo droplets” in the lawn:
??
This is interesting in light of our recent post about enforcement of the Chicago ‘excrement’ ordinance.
From the Seattle Times: “Dog owner says rules about droppings stink“. A fellow was walking his dog off leash, he was accosted by ‘humane law-enforcement officers’, and he was given a ticket.
For being off-leash.
And, for not carrying a scoop!
Seattle Municipal Code 18.12.080 about dogs in parks:
Any person with a dog or other pet in his or her possession or under his or her control in any park shall be responsible and liable for the conduct of the animal, shall carry equipment for removing feces, and shall place feces deposited by such animal in an appropriate receptacle.
The fellow’s response is interesting –
According to Guiling’s version of events, although he wasn’t carrying a plastic bag to pick up Amy’s poop, what he did was walk to a nearby garbage can, find an empty plastic bag and use that.
Guiling drove to the animal-control offices and talked to Don Baxter, the enforcement supervisor, about what exactly would constitute a poop scoop.
“My point was that there is no definition,” Guiling said. “It could be the hat on your head, it could be your hand. For $54, I’d take off my shirt and use it.”
We wonder how real this is – do people often ‘go to the garbage can’ and ‘find an empty bag’? Seems unlikely, but then again, it’s a big world out there.
01
Mar
11
Curb your beast
As you know, the Chicago Park District recommends that you use a 50 pound link chain to control your dog as it enjoys sniffing at the flowers in the park:
The Chicago Park District also recommends a 50 pound link chain be used at the local off-leash dog park (or Dog ‘Friendly’ Area):
(We doubt that most experts agree with this last recommendation!)
We’ve been wondering where the bureaucrats at the CPD came up with this idea, but thanks to the Internets we think we’ve found it!
Courtesy of Dana Weems, a writer for ChicagoTalks.org, South Poop has received a copy of a City of Chicago FOIA request that lists the citations for the last three years under the City’s Removal of Excrement ordinance 7-12-420.
You recall the text of the ordinance:
“No person shall appear with a pet upon the public ways or within public places or upon the property of another, absent that person’s consent, without some means for the removal of excrement; nor shall any person fail to remove any excrement deposited by such pet.”
It’s a lovely ordinance, really: Carry a bag and pick it up.
And for that you avoid the fine of “not less than $50.00 nor more than $500.00 for each offense”.
So, the question that Dana raised (one that we’ve also raised), is how much action does this ordinance get? How many poo cowards are being dragged down to Municipal Court by the scruff of their necks each year in order to pay their $50.00?
We were thrilled when we read in Dana’s article that there were a significant number of citations under the ordinance each year. If each year thirty or sixty people are being fined for walking away from a pile of poo, that’s probably thirty or sixty who are going to have to acquire a bit of poo backbone, even if it needed to be stiffened by the Man.
But who was being caught? And where?
With the data in hand, we can take a careful look –
Continue reading ‘Chicago’s “excrement” ordinance – What’s really going on?’
25
Feb
11
The Load Down
Chicago’s own PoopBags.com has a blog, The Load Down.
Check it out!
So, this is some cool direct action – an artist, Jay Shells, who’s made a reputation for producing etiquette graphics in the NYC subway system is putting up hand-drawn posters about cleaning up poo!
It’s an interesting approach – the posters are being put up on temporary construction walls, and he screws a dog bag dispenser into the sign.
This is an awesome idea!
Washington Heights Poster Reminds Dog Owners to Clean Up After Their Pets:
Artist Jay Shells, maybe better known as the man behind the ‘subway etiquette’ project, has undertaken a new campaign targeting dog poop, installing large, colorful, hand-painted posters street side, reminding people to “clean up after your dog”
A correspondent reported last Friday that she found 48 poos on the field north of 18th St. We’ve commented on the field before – it’s a wonderful resource for people with dogs in the area that’s going to disappear someday, perhaps sooner rather than later if the poo problem gets out of hand!
What can we do about it? We have a bunch of ideas:
a) Flag the poos. Why? Two reasons – 1st: to bring attention to the number of poos left behind – You can walk away, but there they are, all your poos! And 2nd: to alert other users of the field, soccer players, football throwers, frisbee tossers, and dog owners, that it’s a mess out there.
b) Wildcat a banner. Something like ‘Pick up your freaking poo! Sponsored by South Poop.‘. Why? 1st: To get it in their face. Your poo cowardice is an anonymous act, but people do notice what you’re doing. And 2nd: Perhaps we could raise awareness of South Poop. Whether a banner would last (recall the ‘Poo Bandits’ sign at Polk St. last year) is another question, but we’re willing to give it a try.
c) Request additional trash bins. Why? So that there’s a convenient place to leave a bag. The 2-3 bins near the entrance are a long walk from where Fido goes poop. Let’s make it more convenient. To do this, we’ll need to contact the Alderman and/or the Chicago Park District. The park is in the 25th Ward, currently represented by Daniel Solis.
d) Request a poo bag dispenser. Perhaps the South Loop Dog PAC could coordinate this (as they did in the off-leash dog areas)? Why? 1st: To make it clear to dog owners that the community expects you to pick up after your pup. And 2nd: to make it easy for people to reach for a bag, without excuses. To do this, too, we’ll need to contact the Alderman and the CPD. And we’d have to come up with an arrangement to keep the bag dispenser filled.
e) Stake out the field. There’s ample parking north of the field – sit and watch! Why? So that we can run yelling after poo cowards proffering them a fresh bag! But really, does anyone want to volunteer for that??
We haven’t implemented these ideas yet and some of them would cost money. Not a lot, but it would be interesting to see if there’s community support in the way of $$ contributions to make these things happen.
So, what to do?
21
Feb
11
That’s a lot!
Another poster from our friends in Snohomish Co., WA!
In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a nice article at ChicagoTalks.org:
South Loop Residents Say Enough With the Dog Poop | Chicagotalks.
There’s some useful perspective in the article, but what struck us as particularly interesting is that each of the people interviewed picks up other people’s dog poo!
John Simeone takes his Hound mixed, Maverick, to the unofficial dog park next to their apartment on State and Harrison streets every day. He picks up after other dogs, as well. He said as dog owners, people need to start taking responsibility.
“I’ve never actually seen anyone not pick it up, but I’ve actually picked up other people’s stuff because when I’m down getting [Bolu’s], I’m like, oh well,” said Jessica Hitch.
She said even though it keeps the peace, and it’s the right thing to do, she’s tired of picking up other dog’s messes. “I go to the extra mile, and I pick up what we call ‘orphan poos,’” said Focia.
These are the good guys! Thanks John, Jessica & Pamela!
19
Feb
11
Cottontail Park poo graffiti!
Well, someone has finally had enough of all of the orphan poos in Cottontail Park.
Me too!
06
Feb
11
How did this get there?
Some wag left a nice poo sitting on top of a recycling container at the Field north of 18th St:
Funny, funny stuff!
11
Jan
11
Dog Poop Song
Oh boy. A song about not wanting to pick up dog poop.
Lyrics:
I don’t wanna pick up my dogs poop.
It’s free fertilizer and you know it’s true.Nobody’s looking, sometimes i’ll just leave it there.
As long as you don’t step in it you shouldn’t care.And I know I know I know it’s wrong.
But before anyone sees me I’ll be long gone.And I know I know I know it’s rude.
But the spiders and the earthworms call it food.The other day, a lady, she yelled at me.
She said ‘this is not a place for dogs to pee!’I said that’s funny cause it looks like grass.
Should be thankful that he peed and that he’s just got gas.Yes I know I know I know it’s wrong.
But before anyone sees me I’ll be long gone.And I know I know I know it’s rude.
But the spiders and the earthworms call it food.I don’t wanna pick up my dog’s caca.
If you don’t like my song I don’t give a faca.
Nope. A hipster with a ukelele doesn’t make it hip.
10
Jan
11
“Funny action against heap”
“Funny action against heap” – that’s the Google Translation of “Lustige Aktion gegen Häufchen“, the title of this YouTube video.
Kackel helps dachshund – Funny action against heap
Thanks to Google Translate for this:
What man is fun, he does like too. The action saubergemacht@maintal.de took up this theme. The volunteers were given the children’s game “Kackel dachshund” as a thank you for their commitment.
Thus, the tedious collection of the heap was turned into a fun action. 65 Maintaler therefore helped with the first day and gained 3 kg dog pile.
The game “Kackel dachshund” sets an example and shows how to deal with the pile of dog – because winning is who is the first to fully dog pile of a shovel.
Taboos such as animal faeces fascinate children, and that is used for the funny Goliath thrill of his game: The cube in turn decide whether to feed the hungry, the players Kackel dachshund for a walk or go to.
Then hopefully the unspeakable happened!
Might work for younger kids.
Somehow I don’t think that the teenagers are going to go for this!
Here’s the announcement (again, thx to Google Translate):
On Tuesday 14 September is the opening event on the campaign “saubergemacht@maintal.de” on the Main Dörnigheim meadows in Maine, level of Mühlheimer ferry instead. The supporters of the initiative do sensiblisieren Maintaler the citizens, especially all dog owners and dog-holder, to the problem of dog waste on playgrounds and Gewegen, in parks and public green spaces. By participating, can win in the opening event of something: The Family Game “Kackel dachshund” Goliath of the games publisher, which addresses a funny way, the problem with dog waste.
Location: Maine
Homepage: http://www.maintal.de
Insane as this is, I think it’s is a good project!
& what a great phrase! Maybe we’ll can use it as a slogan: ‘South Poop – Funny action against heap!’
08
Jan
11
Poo-haha
An interesting headline from Upper Providence Township, PA:
Dog Park Closure Causes Poo-haha
The subhead? Closing of dog park causes big stink.
The interesting part is this claim:
Officials said that there was so much poop in the park that lawn mowers contracted by the township refused to go in after it clogged their machines and sprayed excrement up the drivers’ backs.
… it clogged their machines and sprayed excrement up the drivers’ backs !!!
But there’s enough information in the (short) article to get some sense of the failure of policy – not enough trash containers at Reynolds Dog Park, and those that were available weren’t emptied frequently.
Still, you gotta wonder what people were doing to cause poo to ‘clog up the machines‘!
The park has a Facebook page. Check it out.
07
Jan
11
Poop Noir
Another ‘good one’ from our friends at the Snohomish Co, WA Dept. of Public Works, Surface Water Management Division.
Click on the image for a full-size copy of the poster.
Wow. Happy New Year to you too!
ugh!
oof!
pow!
Continue reading ‘Coliseum Park DPFA covered in poo and trash’
04
Jan
11
Your dog has pooped. Now what?
We were alerted by JohannTheDog to an awesome post at All Over Albany “It’s Winter. Your dog has pooped. What now?”
Well, we’ve thought a lot about this issue. And we finally came to the conclusion that winter somehow impairs the ability of some people to make good decisions about whether they should pick up their dog’s poop.
What a beautiful flowchart to help you make your decision!
It’s nice that you are provided with many options, including ‘Think of the Karma’ and ‘Wow, you really are a jerk!’.
It’s also nice that a PDF version is provided for easy printing. Let’s see some of these printed, laminated, and posted on the fences of the South Loop in coming months!
And, check out the comments.
DJdubJay – And hey… guy with two large dogs who just moved to the 100 block of Lancaster, can we talk for a minute? … Since you moved here, the ratio of “clean” sidewalk to steaming piles and grainy smears has rapidly been approaching an awful kind of fecal singularity.
Awesome!
Gretchen – As the owner of a puppy who loves “poopsicles,” I hate these people. Even good dog owners have had to leave a poop behind on rare occasions due to running out of bags, but, while I’m certainly not an expert in poop identification, I see what looks like evidence of repeat offenders on our regular route. It should be legal to pelt these people with snowballs.
Poopsicles!
Jen – @Rebecca is absolutely right that feeding a good diet is crucial. It really is terrible when you are walking a dog who poops four times during the walk, with each one getting progressively more pudding-like and hard to clean up. Good quality food makes for healthy poops that are easy to pick up!
Pudding-like!
Thanks AOA!
03
Jan
11
How many poos per day?
Some recent information made available on the web prompts a question that we really need to get a handle on.
How many poos per day in the South Loop?
And where do those poos end up?
A recent article in the Chicago Journal provided an estimate of “around 2500 dog owners” in the South Loop. There was no explanation of how this number was arrived at, but let’s imagine that it’s in the ballpark.
How many dogs is that? Let’s suppose the average number of dogs/household is 1.5. So: 3750 dogs in the South Loop. It’s a guess, but let’s go with it.
3750 dogs are each going to poo once or twice a day. Let’s say the average is 1.5 poos/dog. So we arrive at our answer: 5625 dog poos/day in the South Loop. Again, it’s a guess, but let’s go with it.
That’s a lot of poos!
(The South Loop from Congress to 18th or so is only about 0.625 square miles, but most of that area is built up… we’ll address ‘poo density’ in a later post.)
Now, the South Loop Dog PAC reported on their blog recently that they provide about 22,000 dog waste bags each year at the South Loop dog parks.
As they calculate it, that’s “61 poos picked up for less than two dollars a day”.
Hmmm…. 61 ÷ 5625 is about 1% of the dog poo in the South Loop. Good on ya SLDogPAC, but there’s still the 99% to worry about!
By the way, if we take the SLDogPAC’s estimate of $0.032/bag, that means that if each dog-owning resident of the South Loop were given a bag to pick up their dog’s poo, it would cost $180/day.
Interesting.
20
Dec
10
Imagine the headlines!
So, this poor lady lets her dog poo in the park, she walks away, and she gets fined for it.
And it’s written up in the local paper!
Woman fined after letting dog foul Chorley park
A DOG owner who let her pet foul in Cuerden Valley Country Park and made no attempt to clear up the mess has been fined £50.
Kelly Haydon, 20, of Laburnum Avenue, Lostock Hall, pleaded guilty to letting the dog foul the land after originally appealing a fixed penalty notice issued by Chorley Council.
Magistrates heard that Haydon was walking her brown springer spaniel dog with another lady in August this year when the dog, which was off the lead, fouled in the park.
A Chorley Council Neighbourhood Officer on patrol witnessed the incident and saw that neither woman made an attempt to clean up the mess.
He identified the owner of the dog and issued her with a £50 fixed penalty notice
When was the last time a dog poo fine has been written up in the Chicago Journal or the Chicago Tribune? In fact, when was the last time anyone has been fined under Chicago Municipal Code 7-12-420 “Removal of excrement”?
We don’t know, but would love to find out.
Seems like it might even rival ‘Man bites Dog’.
Imagine the headlines!
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