Boomerang doggy doings - courtesy of Correos
Saturday, June 8, 2013 @ 12:41 PM
I was quite amused by the solution Brunete, near Madrid, has found to the ever-present problem of dog mess in the streets. Their decision to mail the mess back to the owners, and the way they go about it, is nothing short of ingenious.
Not for the people of Brunete the confrontational 'Pick up your dog's mess or else' - they're much more subtle than that. Volunteers strike up a friendly conversation with the offending owners, and elicit the name of the pooping pooch. Armed with a name and a breed, they can track down the owners through the national pet data base. Then some of the valiant volunteers collect the leavings, pop them in an official Ayuntamiento box marked 'Objetos Perdidos' - Lost Property - and mail them back to the owner.
It's literally bringing their offence home to them, and if Correos moves as quickly in Madrid as it does here in Algorfa, I reckon by the time Fido's faeces arrive back at the hacienda they'll be festering frantically. It's working as well - there's 70% less dog mess on the streets of Brunete as a result of the initiative.
Like all the best ideas, it's a simple concept. Far more practical than the idea I had for cleaning up Doggy Doings Alley in Algorfa. I wondered whether the local vets could implant something to monogram the dogs' doings as they exited the animal, so that the owners could be located and fined. Mind you, my idea was the result of an extended afternoon of cava quaffing.
