Residents of the Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan, New York, are fed up with a nasty problem: dog excrement on the streets. As they accuse, the “inconsiderate” pet owners do not pick up the waste when they take them for a walk.
According to some testimonies collected by the newspaper New York Post, looking down has become a mandatory practice when walkingsince there is a risk of stepping on some of this waste.
“The Upper East Side is supposed to be a good neighborhood,” said Frank DeGaetano, an 81-year-old retired dentist who was passing through East 74th Street to visit friends. “But now it’s full of excrement. I have to look down. Everyone has to watch where they walk. It’s like a maze”.
Tatiana Shames, 51, comes to the neighborhood every morning to work, but recently the smell has become very annoying. “There are feces everywhere,” she lamented in a communication with The Post.
Even some dog owners who live on the Upper East Side have shown their rejection. “It’s concerning how much dog poop there is, because there are children around as well,” shared Kevin Vicent, who owns an Australian Shepherd.
Julie Menin, who is a member of the New York City Council, said that she herself has to take care of the feces when she takes her daughter to school. “We literally skipped all the poop off of East 80″ Street,” she noted. “During the year I have received hundreds of complaints at each community board meeting and we hear a lot from parents. is continuous”.
Consequently, the councilwoman began a poop sign contest asking neighborhood residents to help design a new visual campaign for passers-by who walk their pets.
The complaints were also backed by A study recently published in the magazine Indoor and Built Environment. In the report, conducted by a team of students and faculty at Marymount Manhattan College, they noted that there were “high concentrations of fecal bacteria” on the soles of the shoes of the tested volunteers.
The analysis showed that these bacteria could be carried into the home through shoes. The students zeroed in on those areas that didn’t appear visibly dirty, but turned out to have more fecal evidence than previously thought.
The dogs of New York produce around 27,000 tons of waste per yearTherefore, since 1978, the public health law of this city establishes $250 fine for failing to pick up pet feces in any public area. The Big Apple’s canine population is estimated at up to 600,000, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
Neighbors can also report litter and must keep their properties clean. According to the local government, for Upper East Side residents it is possible to request surveillance by the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to enforce the law.
THE NATION
