OHMIDOG! : Scoopen ze poop: Berlin campaign uses humor

A citizens group in*Germany is fighting Berlin’s ongoing problem of uncollected dog poop with, of all things, humor.
Instead of pointing fingers at owners who don’t pick up after their dogs, surreptitiously photographing them, engaging in shouting matches and confrontations, or fining them $1,000 (aka the Baltimore way), Sandra Kaliga and her neighbors decided to go for the funny bone.
She and her friends now regularly hit the streets of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district — under the auspices of their organization, Shit Happens*– to place tiny flags featuring funny quips atop uncollected piles.
“Only humor is effective,” said Kaliga, a dog owner.
Shit Happens has 15 different flag slogans that they hope will alert innocent pedestrians*and remind dog owners to clean up after their pets. “Well formed!” reads one. “100 grammes, just €1.99,” says another.
So far reaction in the neighborhood has been positive, according to an article in “The Local,” an English-language news website in Germany.
“Most people find it funny,” Shit Happens member Sabina Ruminski said. “But we also get some dim-witted commentary, which mostly comes from dog owners who feel like they’ve been caught.” Other dog owners rush to clean up poop when they see the group headed their way, members said.
According to the Berlin Animal Protection Agency, the city is home to more than 107,000 pooches, producing an estimated 30 million pounds of poop a year. Some dog owners in Germany, because they are required to pay a “dog tax” each year, reportedly feel that should absolve them of having*to clean up after their pets.
Shit Happens members say they sympathize with Berlin dog owners, who are often forced to carry*plastic bags of poop for long distances due to a lack of*waste receptacles – a problem the group suggests be solved with dog tax money.
In the meantime, Shit Happens is filling tiny flag orders for communities outside Berlin and is creating new “Danke” flags to hand pet owners they spot doing their part to keep the streets clean.
(Photo from Shit Happens … “Haufen,” I think, means pile, but I don’t know what “Herrchen” means. Maybe some our readers in Germany can help us out.)


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