Merde Happens.

• Author: McNeil, Donald G., Jr.
• Position: Paris battles dog-poop - Brief Article

PARISIAN DOGS SOIL CITY'S REPUTATION, WHILE OWNERS PROFESS HELPLESSNESS

PARIS

Sophie and her golden lab, Mellis, made the mistake of strolling down a quiet pedestrian alley just as an anti-dog-poop demonstration was at its height. The demonstrators drew chalk circles around the piles, sang anti-doggie ditties, and repelled dog owners by offering them chocolate versions of what their pets had planned to leave.

Sophie and Mellis were quickly mobbed. "Not everyone in Paris is dirty," Sophie pleaded. "It's difficult for Mellis to go between two cars. We need some place especially for dogs."

How about, she was asked, just picking it up, as the citizens of other cities do? "Oh, well--maybe if the city provided plastic bags," she said, unenthusiastically. "And perhaps the city could teach us the correct way to use them."

As always in Paris, it is the government's fault.

SERIOUSLY DISGUSTING

Dog waste, says one local newspaper, "sticks to Paris's reputation the way fog does to London's." Tourists are revolted at what they find underfoot after gazing overhead. An average of 650 people a year break bones or are hospitalized after slipping on it.

Now, as it has done periodically, the city is again trying to do something about the problem. It has begun a poster and movie campaign, hoping to awaken the average Parisian's sense of guilt. One poster shows a person...