Photos by: William Scott / Bigstock.com
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s doing it! We’re talking to professional dog Pooper Scooper to get the “scoop” on this troublesome, but necessary act.
Did you know that International Pooper Scooper Week runs from April 1-7…and no, this isn’t an April prank. It’s real, and it’s a week I could be late (no pun intended). It’s the right time of year to run this education campaign; The snow is melting, revealing a winter’s worth of unclaimed dog droppings. I don’t know how dog owners could have thought that a layer of snow would somehow make this chain of tube disappear.
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And I’m not the only one sick of this crap. Since I’m the pet site’s editor and pet parent, angry neighbors are always coming to me with their issues about dog waste they’ve left on their lawn. It is not just an eye sore, but a potential health hazard. Dogs and humans step into the crater and carry it home. You may not be able to see them, but that poop contains parasites that can make the whole family sick. But if these sick facts and landmarks don’t convince you to pick up your dog’s poop, what will you do?
You call the dog poop professionals.
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Yes, it’s a legitimate business, a hit and miss for Erin Erman, CPO (He’s the Chief Poop Officer) at Dirty Work Pooper Scooper Service in Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve never met a pro-fuel picker, so as you can imagine, I had some important questions (at least for me) to ask. Inquiring minds need to know!
PG: How did you get the idea for an abstract trade?
Erin: I was so stressed and disappointed with my job in the tech industry. Knowing that I was an animal lover and had always loved being outdoors, my mother-in-law jokingly told me a story she had read in the National Enquirer at her stylists about a woman who was making a living as a popper sombrero. I laughed but soon thought, “Hey, that’s a good idea!” And a new company was born in Atlanta in 1998.
PG: What do people say when you tell them what you do for a living? Do they ask if you washed your hands before shaking?
Eren: They mostly smile or laugh. We do get some people looking up their nose at us for it, but dog poop doesn’t clean itself! We actually had a client’s neighbor stand on his roof and make a fuss for us while we worked — and two weeks later, he asked for a card and signed himself. Once people get used to the idea, it starts looking good for them.
PG: How many people do you have? How do you recruit for PopScooper? (Side note: do they t-shirt with a professional bobber sopper—if so, I really want to!)
Erin: The number varies, but we usually have 5-8 people in the field at any one time. We have dirty work shirts and hats. We can’t have faceless people hanging around backyards – and getting a few comments when we stop for gas and errands. Some people think we are doing some kind of prank or joke.
People have never asked for a T-shirt, but they love to show others our business card. (It’s a dog on a toilet that says, “Until then, call us.”)
PG: What is the funniest dog story related to you?
Erin: We’ve had some legendary incidents. One time, a child’s toy was eaten by a dog, and when we went to clean up the yard, we saw two large white plastic eyeballs staring at us from a pile of trash. We actually inspired one of the cartoon logos we use a lot.
Again a very sarcastic man called and called for us to get out ASAP. His wife repeatedly demanded that he get out of the yard before her visiting family arrived. He did not approach him and as soon as his mother-in-law went out in the yard to play with the grandkids, she slipped in some poo, fell and broke her arm. If they had a little house he would definitely be in it.
PG: What other interesting things did you find on your expeditions? What did you do with it?
Erin: Chewed dollar bills used to be pretty common, but people probably aren’t carrying around as much money now that we don’t really deal with that anymore. But we’ve seen it all: Legos, Barbie shoes, lots of gift wrapping paper, aluminum foil—you name it.
We asked a customer to be on the lookout for a valuable family ring. We would have left a double bag by their door – the waste separation would have definitely been back to them!
Once we got into a client’s backyard and had to call her with the bad news that her testers had pulled out the entire leak pipe and parts of the attached gutters on the back side of her house.
PG: What kind of people are the worst poop busters, in your opinion? For example, is age, income, or where they live an indicator of how vigilant they are about picking up their dog’s poop?
Erin: There’s one thing we’ve learned in all of our research and years of work: no matter what part of the country, age, marital status, etc., a certain percentage of the population will never pick up after their dog. Statistics say 40 percent of people don’t take that tube, but we think the number is actually higher than that.
And especially these days, the free time on such a short supply for people is such that the last thing they want to do when they finally have a moment is go down in the yard and deal with the smelly dog mess. We keep a price point that makes us look for an attractive alternative to them.
PG: Who hires you? Is it pet parents, the city of Atlanta, special events, etc.?
Erin: Our clients are a mix of single-family residential homes, multi-family communities (apartments, condos, etc.), homeowners’ associations, parks and dog parks. We also get people who gift our services to families with a new baby or people who travel frequently and that sort of thing. And a lot The couple hires us to “hint, hint” to the other spouse!
PG: What tools do you use to pick up poop? Do you employ bags, shovel, vacuum, hazmat suits, etc.?
Erin: We have a few different tools of the trade. We mostly stock room supplies like foyer pans and long-use spades, and we also use things like push brooms to scrub floors and environments if our pup leaves a little “present” on a hard surface. We use large lawn style sprinklers to disinfect tools and shoes between each property.
PG: How much poop (in weight/pounds) would you say he picks up in an average year?
Erin: I can’t even imagine how many thousands of pounds we take away from Atlanta hotels every year, but all of our Popper Scoopers have really good muscular muscles, that’s for sure.
Each Scooper Tech will receive at least 4-5 large paper bags of dog waste each day. We pick up a lot out of the tube!
PG: Where does the dog poop you collect go?
Erin: At this time the best place for it is still in the landfill and in the landfill. This is what the Department of Agriculture recommends, and we stick to it. Landfills have special liners that are designed to handle this type of waste, cat litter, dirty diapers, etc. Some companies are starting to work on commercial composting, but it’s a very delicate process that involves prolonged exposure to 140-degree heat to kill things like E. coli and salmonella. It’s not yet a practical replacement, but hopefully it will be soon. Even commercial waste processors in the yard do not currently destroy waste at temperatures sufficient to kill many of the pathogens in pet waste.
PG: Is there a slow off season, or do you pick up all year long?
It always surprises people, but summer is our slowest season. We believe it is because people travel and find good summer fun. Other seasons of the year require them to stay closer to home with their families and pets. We’ll be diving rain or shine, hot or cold.
PG: Do you stop people you see from eating their pack of dogs and offer them a bag or your business card?
Erin: We read that as a marketing story and gave it a try, but oh boy, oh boy…people didn’t like it at all. Even though we were smiling and being quite upbeat about it, I think maybe they were embarrassed by being “caught”. So now we just smile and say hello. Sometimes what we talk about is “normal,” but if it doesn’t, we just get on with it.
PG: Why do you think it’s necessary to have an official Pooper Scooper Week?
Erin: Most people think of dog waste as something they don’t want to get involved with. They have no idea that they are also EPA-rated environmental pollutants that are just as toxic to the environment as chemical and petroleum spills. Major cities as well as states like Maryland have started “pick up the syringe” campaigns due to storm water pollution dogs suffer from (ammonia surges in the water that kill fish, algae blooms that deprive the water of oxygen etc.).
This is not to mention that dog feces carry harmful parasites, pathogens and zoonotic diseases that make people sick as well as other animals.
Whether a person does it themselves or hires a service, no one should be left behind. Out of sight is not out of mind in this case.
PG: What tip/advice would you give someone looking to open their own feeder business?
Erin: Be patient and don’t give up your day job. It took us years to create routes with customers close to each other and start turning a profit. Luckily, I’m pretty stubborn so success wasn’t an option!
