Dog messes raising a big stink
Sunday, May. 07, 2006BY DONNA GEHRKE-WHITE
CHUCK FADELY/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
LET'S GO! Pomo is ready and eager to go on Woof Patrol. More photos
§ Narrated slideshow | South Beach Woof Patrol
It's high noon on the sidewalks and swales of South Florida.
We're talking about doggie-doo.
Rover's smelly remains on other people's property are drawing retaliation, from no-poop signs to sources who would prefer not to be named scooping the poop from their own yard and catapulting it back into the yard of Rover's offending owner.
Most Florida governments may have passed laws requiring owners to scoop their pets' poop from neighbors' yards and swales, but the dogs haven't read the ordinances and many owners aren't complying, residents complain.
''They poop all over the area, including where the kids go to school,'' says Miriam Miranda of North Miami, who has tried and failed to get city officials to take action against the owners of dogs that poop in her yard. ``It is a major, major problem.''
The feces fight is heating up worldwide as urbanites demand action against the stinky shoe-clinging reminders of Man's Best Friend.
The city of Paris has resorted to hiring poop-scoop inspectors who slap those who don't clean up with $600 fines. New York has handcuffed alleged excrement miscreants. In South Korea, where politeness is revered, commuters posted on the Internet the photo of a young woman who refused to clean up after her teacup pooch defecated in a subway train.
South Florida governments have stopped far short of such measures, though some cities have installed plastic bag dispensers in parks and along popular dog-walking routes.
''We feel education is the key to compliance in this case,'' says Miami Beach spokeswoman Nanette Rodriguez.
Not all dog owners believe they need to clean up.
''I feel: Clean up the sidewalk or driveway or lawn. But I think the swale is fair game,'' adds Leonard Riforgiato of Miami. ``It's county property. It's the people's right to use. . . . It comes with living in the city.''
His community has worse problems, he adds, such as barking dogs.
Dog owners who take that attitude have spurred some to vigilante tactics.
Helen K. Weiss of Aventura says she lost it when she saw a woman let her dog defecate in a park near Weiss' jogging trail -- and then refuse to clean up.
''She totally ignored me and walked past me,'' says Weiss, a runner. ``I said some mean things to her. I'm not going to say what.''
Thornie Jarrett, civic association president of Fort Lauderdale's Victoria Park neighborhood, recently chastised a woman who allowed her two dogs to defecate in his front yard -- and then started to walk off.
``I told her, `Lady, wait a minute. You forgot something. . . . What's wrong with you?''
She ignored him. Jarrett ended up doing the cleaning.
''Let's face it,'' he says. ``You walk through your yard and [spend] the next 30 minutes cleaning shoes and carpeting.''
The fight over dog poop is one of many raging in America these days over what some people decry as a general decline in civility.
''We have good manners when we are aware of the impact our actions have on others,'' says P.M. Forni, author of Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct (St. Martin's Griffin, $11.95) and co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility Project.
''It is also an issue of public hygiene,'' he says. Those who do clean up point out that the dogs, and their devoted owners, are the real losers.
''Every time someone leaves their dog droppings, they are laying the foundation to outlaw dogs,'' warns Brian Kilcommons, New York's director of training and animal control, who has written books on dog behavior.
In fact, dogs are banned from many public areas of South Florida, including most parks and beaches.
Dog parks in some areas, including Coconut Grove and Pembroke Pines, have proven extremely popular. But Miami Shores recently tabled a request to open a dog park in its Constitution Park after heated complaints.
In a letter to the editor, Jose Ferrer warned that the city would have to clean ``feces twice a day, seven days a week to avoid repugnant odors and diseases.''
In Miami Beach, the Woof Patrol has stepped up to educate pet owners and prove that dogs (and their owners) should be allowed along a lush walkway bordering the beach. Four-legged visitors were banned from that stretch of South Beach after city workers complained about dog dung.
After the Woof Patrol volunteered to clean the area, the ban was lifted on a trial basis.
While Woof Patrol founder Yvonne Conza disputes whether there was that much feces to begin with, she cheerfully cleans up after Pomo, her Shih Tzu -- as well as other dogs. She and other volunteers record any leavings they find, then dispose of the evidence.
On a recent morning patrol, Conza found what she described in her report as a ''tiny poop'' and two others -- despite the city providing plastic bags throughout the walkway.
Still, she and others say, most owners are considerate.
''People forget there are owners who pick up,'' says Conza, who carries spare bags to hand out to forgetful owners.
``We love our city. We love our dogs.''