Cork City Council is preparing to circulate posters encouraging people to clean up after their dog with a controversial new slogan: “Get your sh*t together”.
A draft poster for the campaign, which will be formally launched soon, shows the letters s and h, followed by a graphic of a dog doing a poo in place of the letter i, then a letter t.
The new slogan was approved by four of the dog fouling committee’s five members present; Fine Gael’s Joe Kavanagh, the chair, the Green Party’s Dan Boyle and Oliver Moran, and Fianna Fáil’s Margaret McDonnell.
Sinn Féin councillor Michelle Gould told The Echo that she was the only one to vote against it, saying: “I think it’s encouraging children to curse. This is going to be put up on bus shelters, parks – I don’t think it’s appropriate.
“I think it’s fair for people to say Cork City Council needs to get its sh*t together. Dog fouling is an issue, it was one of the top five complaints when I was canvassing, and we need to be educating but also providing more bins in local communities – that’s the road we should be going down, not shock posters.” Mr Kavanagh said that the postering campaign was about “increasing public awareness of the dangers of dog fouling in public areas”.
A city council spokesperson said: “Dog fouling is a serious public nuisance and a health risk.
“Securing a prosecution against dog owners for the offence of dog fouling is very difficult so we need to encourage behavioural change. The aim of this campaign isn’t to shock – it’s to grab people’s attention in an effort to trigger that.
“We hope any debate around this campaign will prompt a discussion around responsible pet ownership and lead to a decrease in dog fouling.”