Here’s the real poop on the scooper law.
The city for years has posted signs in parks and promenades that threaten a $1,000 fine for dog-waste violations — citing “public health law 1316.”
Just one problem with the signs: They’re full of crap.
Not only is the fine not $1,000, that section of the law doesn’t exist.
When The Post asked city officials about one such posting on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, red-faced officials admitted that “1316” is a typo — and that the actual fine is $250.
A Parks Department spokeswoman said staffers took the promenade sign down after The Post’s inquiry.
“[This] appears to be an older sign that is no longer fabricated and no longer installed in parks,” she said. “We make every effort to replace these signs when applicable.”
But despite the city’s claims that the signs have been dumped, The Post yesterday found at least one of the signs still standing tall.
It loomed over Washington Market Park in TriBeCa, where dog owners told The Post that something definitely stinks.
“They’re just trying to scare people,” said Mary Anne Smith, 50, who lives near the park. “They figure it’s a good deterrent . . . but it should be taken down.”
Smith and daughter Jessie Gross, 11, were walking their pug when they saw the bogus sign.
“A thousand dollars for something that comes out your dog’s butt?” Gross said. “If somebody left their dog poop and they got charged more than the actual fine, that’s basically unfair.”
Online photos and blogs indicate that some of the signs were installed as far back as 2004.
In 2010, one Brooklyn blogger marveled that the fine was $1,000 on Shore Road Park in Bay Ridge and only $100 at Mount Prospect Park in Prospect Heights.
Pet owners say a $1,000 ticket for a pooping pooch is asinine.
Speeding 20 miles over the limit in a school zone, for instance, is a $310 ticket, and the fine for a first-time drunken-driving offense, a misdemeanor, is $500 to $1,000.
The state’s pooper-scooper law, enacted in 1978, actually sets the fine at $250.