I am a dog person. In fact, I’m a self-proclaimed crazy dog lady; there is not much I wouldn’t do for my scruffy little chihuahua-terrier mix called Rascal. That said, I’ve had it with a certain breed of dog person. You probably know the type. They assume you will automatically love it when their slobbery companion jumps on you. They say, “He’s friendly!” when their enormous hound lunges at your tiny animal. And, most egregiously, they don’t pick up after their pooch. Or, if they do, they inexplicably discard the bag on to the pavement or a tree, expecting some sort of poop fairy to magically clean up after them.
The shituation seems to have got worse in recent years. Perhaps because the pandemic simultaneously caused a boom in pet ownership and seems to have made large swathes of people forget their manners. A survey from earlier this year found that nearly half of American adults (47%) say the way that people behave in public these days is ruder than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Whether the poll reflects reality or not, one town has had enough of entitled dog people. Starting next year, the northern Italian city of Bolzano will charge tourists with dogs in tow a small daily tax of €1.50 (£1.30). Local owners are also being asked to cough up an annual tax of €100 (£87) a dog to help cover the cost of street-cleaning. Bolzano, by the way, has form when it comes to keeping pet owners on a tight leash. Last year it made DNA tests for dogs compulsory so that any abandoned excrement could be tested, and its owner then tracked down and fined.
DNA testing and dog taxes are not fail-safe solutions; they present obvious logistical issues. But something has got to be done, hasn’t it? Particularly as various other initiatives haven’t done the trick. Paris tried motorised pooper scoopers (motocrottes) from 1982-2002, but they were too expensive. Various apps have been tried, without clear success. Last year a street artist in LA started putting little flags in abandoned dog poop with messages such as “Who raised you?” on them. But shaming people doesn’t work when they’re incapable of shame. So why not try a tax? It’s either that or we bring back capital poo-nishment.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
