{"id":320850,"date":"2026-08-14T00:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320850\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T00:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:02:11","slug":"nyc-will-spend-180k-in-effort-to-curb-rampant-dog-poop-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320850\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC will spend $180K in effort to curb rampant dog poop problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re on poop patrol.<\/p>\n

The City Council is waging a war against dog poop<\/a> \u2013 passing four laws aimed at cleaning up the city\u2019s rampant pet feces problem on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The slate of bills<\/a> \u2013 which passed with a veto-proof majority \u2013\u00a0 includes a mandate to install at least 1,200 dog waste bag dispensers on public trash cans, a three-year PSA campaign and a volunteer poop-pickup program seeking to turn dog waste into compost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New York City council passed a slate of bills that seek to wage war on the Big Apple\u2019s rampant dog poop problem. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s pet project, coined the \u2018SCOOP Act\u2019 , will cost the city roughly $180,000 in fiscal year 2027, in what the body is calling a \u201cmodest investment\u201d to curb the poo-problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to attack it from a multitude of different ways, and the proof will be in the pudding,\u201d Speaker Julie Menin said at a press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A staggering 2,926 dog waste complaints have been submitted to 311 year-to-date, up 45.5% from the same time last year. A committee report on the bills from 2024 found that city pups produce an impressive 500,000 pounds<\/a> of waste daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While other cities like Los Angeles and Chicago have opted to boost fines for irresponsible pet owners, Menin argued that reprimanding lazy pet parents while they\u2019re on the go is harder than it looks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The four bills include installing waste bag dispensers on city trash cans, and starting a composting pilot at dog runs. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what the fine was, it was not deterring conduct because there\u2019s very little to no enforcement,\u201d Menin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to actually catch someone in action, and that can be really challenging to do,\u201d she said of the current city policy that fines derelict owners $250 for leaving their dog\u2019s mess behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Department of Sanitation \u2013 which is required to oversee the dog waste bag dispensers on public trash bins \u2013 claimed they do not have the capacity to restock the bags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDSNY simply does not have the resources to routinely restock the bags at any kind of scale,\u201d the DSNY claimed in a testimony in May. \u201cAnd what could be worse than walking your dog, expecting to find bags available and finding an empty dispenser.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city is expected to shell out $180,000 over the next fiscal year for the \u201cpet\u201d project. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

The city already does marketing campaigns encouraging pet owners to clean up after their furry friends, but the new legislation will require a public education and outreach program, along with signs at the entrances and exits of all city parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A pilot program by Council member Harvey Epstein will also work with already established volunteers at the city\u2019s more than 80\u00a0 dog-runs to install dog-feces collection bins and compostable waste bags \u2013 that will be used for composting and published in a public study.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to use every tool in our toolbox to advance our environmental policies and this is just one piece of a large puzzle,\u201d Epstein said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re on poop patrol. The City Council is waging a war against dog poop \u2013 passing four laws…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8394,301,6530,57,9,24,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-320850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animal-rights","tag-city-council","tag-dogs","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}