It seems that animal excrement has become a problem in my neighborhood. Though I have not personally noticed the problem, I have noticed a few signs addressing the issue. On the side of one apartment building, there's a notice that reads, "PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR DOG PEE HERE" in 32-point font. The notice appears to have been laminated. Up the street, there is a small, delicate rock garden in the dirt surrounding a tree. The most prominent feature is not the rocks, but a large drawing of a dog, squatting to defecate. The dog is surrounded by the universal "no" signal, a circle with a diagonal line through it.
What I gather is that Castro dog owners may not be especially diligent about pooper scooper laws, to the point that frustrated neighbors have been driven to Kinko's in despair. However, I'm not sure that these signmakers have thought things through. What is more disturbing - an occasional puddle of urine, or the words "DOG PEE" in huge letters, taped to the outside of your home, and unmissable during daylight hours? What would you rather look at - dog feces once a week, or a cartoon dog taking a crap, all the time? To my mind, the sanctity of the rock garden has already been compromised.
So we'll see how things shake out in the next few months. My fear is that the anti-poop sign becomes an inviting target for dogs to pee on, and angry dog owners have their pooches crap against the side of the pee-free building out of spite, and suddenly there's a six-foot vinyl banner denouncing dog urine on the pee house, and a metal sign with an even more explicit crapping dog cartoon in the rock garden, and then Didofoot gets a beagle puppy and can't come over anymore because of the pitchfork-wielding mob chasing puppies into Duboce Triangle and handing out surprisingly professional-looking desktop-published brochures about the health hazards of animal waste.
Funny...a few weeks ago we noticed signs pinned to trees near our apartment that read "Please pick up your dog's poop, we do! Thanks". There were two copies of this note pinned to some poor helpless trees. While I agree with the sentiment (I hate that other people don't pick up their dog's poop since I always do), I thought it tacky to leave notes like this. If anything, it made me want to let Max Power poop to his little heart's content...and then leave it right under the sign just to let them know it wouldn't work. Or maybe I wanted to do that because I am evil...
Jess: Maybe if they hadn't written "we do", it would have been less high-and-mighty? Would you have been so inclined to be evil then?
I think that a much more effective method of getting dog owners to pick up after their dogs on your front lawn is probably to give them bags with which to do so. You've already erected a signpost - why not also attach your extra Safeway bags? Most responsible dog owners always carry plastic bags, but everyone gets caught empty-handed sometimes. Courtesy goes both ways.
The dog urine thing, on the other hand, is just ridiculous. Where is that sign? I want to pee on it myself.