You’d think dog poop was the source of all the world’s woes, for all the schemes folks keep trotting out to shame offenders. Here’s another neat little trick: If your dog poops in Brunete, a small town just west of Madrid, Spain, the city will box it up like a gourmet confection and post it back to you straightaway.
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We’ve long heard about dog poop DNA tracking, anti-pollution music videos and yes, even poop-art contraptions designed to convert your pooch’s leavings into electricity capable of powering street lights, but this is the first we’ve heard of a country’s postal service stepping into the fray by dispatching canine excrement through the mail.
“Objetos perdidos,” reads the black stenciled lettering on the official white cardboard boxes designed to re-gift each pile of doggy droppings, a Spanish phrase that means “lost property.” But wait — how in the world would you match each pile to the dog’s negligent owner?
According to The Telegraph, a team of nearly two dozen volunteers policed Brunete’s streets over the course of a week back in February, keeping an eye out for careless dog owners; spying one, a volunteer would approach the unwitting culprit and strike up a conversation to learn the name of the dog.
“With the name of the dog and the breed it was possible to identify the owner from the registered pet database held in the town hall,” said a council spokesperson.
After the owner and their pooch withdrew, the volunteers gathered up the mess, dropped it in a box bearing the town hall’s markings and had it delivered by courier to the owner’s residence. All told, 147 poop-deliveries were made over the course of the week, and the stunt — devised by an ad agency — seems to have paid off: The town says it’s seen violations drop by an astonishing 70%.