Mayor Voices Support for Higher Dog Waste Fines
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Mayor Bloomberg weighed in on the pooper-scooper debate yesterday, saying he supports stiffer fines for those who fail to clean up their dog’s waste.
Last week, the state Assembly voted to raise the maximum penalty for pooper-scooper violations from $100 to $250. It is no surprise that the mayor supports the bill, which still needs approval from the state Senate and governor, given that the city Department of Sanitation requested the state take up the issue.
“The violations have to be large enough to deter the activity that you’re trying to prevent. If they’re a joke, people will treat them as a joke,” the mayor said. “You should be able to walk down the street without stepping in dog excrement.”
The mayor then told a story about his neighbor on the Upper East Side. “I have yelled out the window of the car, ‘Make sure you clean up after your dog!’ And, as far as I know the governor’s always done that,” the mayor joked about Governor Spitzer, who lives down the block.
