‘Pooper scooter’ for Auck. streets?

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 54

‘Pooper scooter’ for Auck. streets?

PA Auckland A machine of the future and some old fashioned punishment have entered the war against dogs’ “doings” in Auckland streets. The "pooper scooter” is a motor-cycle-powered invention for cleaning up dog faeces. It is being investigated by the Auckland City Council’s Dog Control Centre as one way of cleaning up the city’s streets.

The scooter is advertised as being able to clean 32km of 2m-wide footpath each day, using,a vacuum which then empties straight into the sewage system. The centre’s manager, Mr Ross Brown, said the machine could be the answer to the city’s prob-

lem of pavement pollution and was already proven in Paris, where a hundred machines were in use. The centre had also achieved a landmark last month by helping with the first New Zealand prosecution of a dog owner for not picking up his dog’s “doings” from a public place, Mr Brown said. The man refused twice to pick up his dog’s droppings from a Kohimarama park, when he was asked to by a nearby resident. The resident had then taken the man to court with the help of the Dog Control Centre and was fined $6O plus $25 in court costs, Mr Brown said.’ Under a council by-law people who do not pick up their dog’s faeces from a public place are liable to a fine of up to $lOO.