New Yorkers are in for some more crappy news.
The city is on pace to issue roughly the same number of tickets this year as it did last for dog walkers neglecting to scoop up canine poop despite more than doubling the fine from $100 to $250.
The Department of Sanitation handed out an average of 56 tickets per month between Jan. 1, 2008, and Nov. 6, 2008, when the fine was $100, records show.
Since the $250 penalty was put in place Nov. 7, 2008, the department has issued an average of 54 monthly violations, department statistics show.
“Once or twice, I don’t pick it up, but I try to because it bugs me, too, when people don’t pick up. It’s gross,” dog walker Rina Windasari said in Central Park yesterday.
Windasari, who has been walking dogs five days a week for the past two years, said she sees as much pooch poop in the park as she did before the city raised the fine.
Another dog walker in the park, Christine Bera, agreed the piles of canine waste are as prevalent as ever.
“I don’t like stepping in it and then I have it all over my shoes. It’s disgusting,” Bera said, lamenting that she tossed out two pairs of Steve Madden boots because of poop.
Sanitation spokesman Matt Lipani said flatly, “There is absolutely no correlation between the amount of canine-waste summonses the department writes, or the cost of the summonses, and whether or not dog owners pick up after their dogs.”
The city issued 561 tickets at $100 each during a 10-month period last year, and has handed out 215 violations since the $250 fine went into effect.