January 18, 2003 was a glorious day on our wee oyelen. Sunny, crisp, no wind and a dusting of light snow on the trees. A day made for hiking. Uncharacteristically, I found the need to be working in Charlottetown on Saturday. Finishing my duties I decided on a short wobble down the board walk to clear the cobwebs. Now understand, I am a dog owner - I adore dogs - just about all breeds - but puuulllleeeze! Steaming piles of dog crotte abound. (Actually it was to cold to steam, but a few piles were - oh, never mind.)
That got me thinking about signage and the seemingly prevalent assumption that we are an illiterate society and need to be shown the mandated behaviour with icons. How do you best illustrate the concept of picking up your dog’s poop?
The natural thing seems to be to draw a pooping dog, and cross it out. Or perhaps an iconic person stooping to retrieve said poop. But poop, even innocent l’il doggie poopoos, are taboo. What do to?
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I saw this sign somewhere on the net. Not only is the dog rather specific-looking, it’s performing its instinctive bury-my-poop action. Contrasted with the relative realness of the dog is a very stylized person and some ultra-iconic poop. Can’t really get more chaste and inoffensive than representing the poo as a neat little diamond package.
For the folks that buy into the “come play on our island” and “come feel our warmth” slogans, this kind of sign may be just fine. For the vast majority of people who take their dogs to the board walk (mostly oyelendors) a big white sign with red letters saying ”don’t let your dog shit where other people walk!” is probably the only solution.
19 Jan 2003 at 04:49 pm | #
Not to poo-poo your post—but ---
Perhaps video surveilance of observed doggie dumping zones, wherewith offending dog owners could be detected, pounced upon by constabulary types, arrested, thrown down the boobie-hatch and their dogs passed over to the Social Services Dept. to be cared for until new and responsible owners can be found.
(Naturally, the Animal Shelter can handle abused/endangered childeren as their track record proves them more competant in the handling of innocents. Needless to say, Social Services cannot be allowed to euthenise their charges, neither would the shelter terminate theirs.)
Some happy consequences: something interesting for the local constabulary to occupy themselves with during those boring slow periods—we are rid of euthenization—the average *idiot* would be boobie-hatched for a time, giving the rest of us a break from them—the Social Services Dept. gets to work with their own kind—the Animal Shelter has the well-deserved opportunity to love and care for their charges without having to deal with euthenization—and we would not need to clutter the landscape with ugly iconic signs instructing people to do what only common sense would dictate!
After all is said and done, we need to remember: every *solution* spawns a multitude of unforeseen *other problems*......
19 Jan 2003 at 09:10 pm | #
OK..when you have a minute could you stop by and peel the dog shit off of my shoes. While yer at it, the carpet in my car stinks too.
19 Jan 2003 at 09:28 pm | #
I got emailed about your comment......kooool.
BTW, I wasn’t suggesting the poop not be picked up.