New York's Poop Scoop Law: Dogs, the Dirt, and Due Process (New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond) [Hardcover]

Michael Brandow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 2008 | Series: New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond

It's hard to imagine eight million people trying to avoid dog refuse on the streets of New York City on a daily basis. It's harder not to imagine New Yorkers from all walks of life picking up after their canines. Using plastic bags or trendy, mechanized devices, pet owners have become a unified force in cleaning up the sidewalks of the Big Apple. We forget that Health Law 1310, which went into effect in 1978, was the first such legislation to work in a major city, and that the strange custom of scooping in New York continues to influence communities around the world. Not long ago, picking up after your Poodle, Puli, or Pekinese was not a basic civic duty. Initially, many politicians thought the idea was absurd. Animal rights activists were unanimously opposed. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals condemned the proposed legislation because it would impose undue hardship on dog owners. New York's Poop Scoop Law chronicles the integration of dog owners, a much-maligned subculture, into mainstream society by tracing the history of the legislation that New York's City Council shelved twice before Mayor Ed Koch was forced to go to the state level for support. Brandow shows how a combination of science and politics, fact and fear, altruism and self-interest led to the adoption and enforcement of legislation that became a shining success.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the "largest canine population known in history," New York City in the early 1970s was drowning in 500,000 pounds of feces every day. In this overlong, occasionally entertaining account, Brandow details the situation with painstaking rigor, as the messy problem turned into a boondoggle of bizarre schemes, red tape and, eventually, 1978's State Health Law 1310, which requires dog owners to clean up after their pets. Proposed solutions included forcing dogs to use their owners' bathrooms, and City Controller Abraham Beame's suggested corps of "Envirmaids," female inspectors who would police the city "night and day." (Why women? Not only are they neater than men, they cost less.) Brandow gives plenty of time to these and other characters, including TV reporter Fran Lee, whose "what about the children" campaign pushed the theory (later debunked) that dog feces exposure would cause blindness in kids, and the work of more level-headed, well-intentioned neighborhood groups. Unfortunately, constant digressions drag the narrative, exploding the text to encyclopedic length. Even dog-owning Manhattan natives will have their patience tested plodding through the bill's inevitable ratification and aftermath; though occasionally engaging, this narrative is best suited for public policy students.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Michael Brandow wittily dissects the anatomy and enforcement of the law, and explores his premise that any issue as emotionally charged as this one just has to be about something more than the obvious. If the book has a hero, it s former Mayor Ed Koch, who pithily summed up his credo, at least on this issue, by saying: I don t care if it s good luck to step in it. I don t want to. --New York Times July 28, 2008

There was the usual bureaucratic gridlock: Koch inherited the problem from Beame, who inherited it from Lindsay, a waffler on canine concerns, according to Brandow, whose known pet affiliations were minimal. Tin-eared functionaries, too: You got five cats? And a dog? one city official asked a woman at a hearing. Christ. What you need is a good man. Then you had your community activists Max Schnapp, of POPA (Pet Owners Protective Association), a labor organizer and the owner of two Great Danes (Tiger and Sampson), a pet crow (Mitzvah), three rabbits (Pinkie, Dutchie, unnamed), a white mouse (Piggy), a baby squirrel (Elmer Wiggley), a gerbil, and half a dozen alley cats (Mau Mau, Nebisch, Sister, Freddy the Freeloader, Monty Wooley), vs. Fran Lee, the founder of Children Before Dogs grinding out their small-bore issues on the grand stage. It was an amazing time, Beck, who was the director of the Bureau of Animal Affairs for the city from 1975 to 1980, recalled. I was actually caught in the crossfire when dog feces were being thrown back and forth. (Gross but true: Lee, at a public debate, got smacked in the head by a loaded baggie.) --New Yorker "Talk of the Town" July 28, 2008

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Purdue University Press; 1 edition (August 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557534926
• ISBN-13: 978-1557534927
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,190,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! January 5, 2009

By SCL

Format:Hardcover

This is a GREAT read! Anyone who appreciates political intrigue, especially NYC-70s-style, will love this -- dog owners or not. It paints a fascinating picture of the time, the ins and outs of public policy, peppered with a Dickensian cast of characters. Who knew poop could be so captivating??

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Doo Process October 11, 2008

By Greg Novie

Format:Hardcover

Excellent book, would recommend to all, especially of course dog owners. Would make a great coffee table book (where mine is right now) or in the bathroom, guest or master, fitting right in with all things scatalogical.