Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Cut the crap: Bills aim to eliminate dog poop from NYC streets
By
Jessica Gould
and
Christian Santana
Published May 17, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
By
Jessica Gould
and
Christian Santana
Published May 17, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Local lawmakers are proposing a package of bills aimed at wiping out one of New York City’s most intractable issues: dog waste.
They're hoping to pass a motion called the SCOOP Act — that is, the Safe and Clean Outdoor Ownership Practices Act, which would provide dog waste bags, establish public education campaigns, bolster enforcement in certain areas and launch a pilot program to compost waste collected from dog runs.
The legislative efforts come after dog waste-related complaints spiked significantly across New York City following consecutive winter snowstorms earlier this year. In January and February, 311 received 821 complaints about dog waste citywide — a 35.8% increase from the same period last year, according to officials.
“We've all experienced it before: that instantaneous feeling of deep regret, right after you step in it, something that's much too soft to be concrete,” Council Speaker Julie Menin said at a rally for the SCOOP Act at Tompkins Square Park on Friday.
The City Council’s sanitation committee will hold a hearing on three of the SCOOP Act’s bills on Tuesday, May 19.
One, sponsored by Menin, would require the Department of Sanitation to install dog waste bag dispensers on or next to its more than 20,000 litter baskets on city streets and refill them at least weekly. Her proposal would also require the sanitation and health departments to conduct a public awareness campaign to educate the public on dog waste’s negative public health consequences in the city's 10 designated languages.
“Having clean streets and sidewalks isn’t just a quality of life issue, it’s also a public health matter that the Council’s SCOOP Act legislation will help address,” Menin said on Friday. “Today is about giving dogs and their busy owners more resources, and friendly reminders to care for their furry friends and for their community.”
Councilmember Justin Sanchez’s bill, meanwhile, would bolster enforcement by establishing procedures for the sanitation department once it receives at least three dog waste-related complaints on the same block within seven days. The sanitation department would then have to either remove the waste or inform property owners of their obligation to do so — and issue $250 violations to those who don’t scoop the poop.
The city has a decades-old "pooper scooper" law, but the rule is rarely enforced.
Councilmember Shahana Hanif’s bill would require the sanitation and health commissioners to develop and roll out a public education campaign about dog waste removal.
The two bills that aren't part of Tuesday's committee hearing would establish a pilot program to compost waste collected from dog runs in city parks, and post signs at park entrances reminding people of the penalties for leaving behind dog poop.
“I have heard every excuse: My dog is small, I forgot a bag, I did not see it happen,” Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse, the sponsor of the sign bill, said at the Friday rally. “Well, your neighbors saw it.”
People Gothamist spoke to in Brooklyn on Saturday were mostly supportive of the effort.
Melanie Islas, a dog owner, said some of her fed-up neighbors in Ditmas Park were taking their own measures to deter dogs.
“One of our crazy neighbors around here, he’ll put chili powder on his grass,” she said.
“Dogs are wonderful, but people need to take more responsibility for looking after their waste so that we can all enjoy being dog owners and non-dog owners together,” said Ciara Warner, who was walking her dog in Ditmas Park on Saturday.
“I don't want anyone to be looking at me thinking I am at all possibly contributing to this as I am a very fastidious cleaner-upper of my dog,” she said.
Lavish Testman was outside the salon she owns just off of Flatbush Avenue on Saturday. She said when she confronts people who leave their dogs’ waste in front of her business, they sometimes curse her out.
“If the person has no respect or decency, they will not clean it up whether you put a bag out or not,” Testman said.
But she worried whether she'd be on the hook if dogs go on the sidewalk outside her salon and their owners don’t clean it up.
“I shouldn’t be punished because someone let their dog poop there,” she said.
“Just pick up your poop, man,” she said.
Tagged
Politics
new york city
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
Read more
Christian Santana
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .