The Aardvark Speaks: Cultural divide (2)

August 11, 2005

Cultural divide (2)

Ralf recently posted this:

which reminds me that I could have mentioned the second-biggest advertising campaign in Vienna this summer. Which tried to convince dog owners to (a) not let their dogs shit all over the city, or (b) at least clean after their dogs.

I've been ranting about this before, so I won't go into great depths again; but when I was reading Joann Sfar's Caravan, I came across this, which I suppose would work brilliantly hereabouts as well:

(Move mouse over speech bubbles to see translation)

In terms of similar guerilla tactics, last year, a Viennese conceptual artist put little red flags into every piece of dog dirt she came across. She got into the newspapers that way, but it had no effect on the overall output of dog dirt in Vienna. Soon we'll probably have vigilante groups like the Turquoise Society:

No idea what else it takes. The most common form of blindness caused by dog dirt is that of the dog owners, it seems.

Posted by Horst on August 11, 2005 06:00 PM to creatures great & small | Tell-a-friend

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Comments

Juliet said on August 15, 2005 07:33 PM:

I wonder WHY Viennese people keep and keep and keep complaining about how dirty the city is and about the dog crap. A city is usually not really a clean place (unless it is Tokio - where I have even seen people vacuum cleaning the street) And btw: far more shit, I guess, in the parks and streets of Vienna is caused bz human beings and not dogs (no messing there :)

laura said on August 16, 2005 07:39 PM:

I kind of have to agree with Juliet here. Dogs are animals and just behave naturally. They really belong in a rural setting, but people love them and force them into the cities. Unless cities outlaw them, its pointless to argue about their inevitable byproducts. I'm sure Vienna was a lot more crappy during the horse and buggy era.

Horst said on August 17, 2005 12:07 AM:

Sorry, but I don't agree at all. Keeping dogs in a city is cruelty towards these animals in the first place, and letting them defecate in front of other people's front doors and/or not cleaning up after them is definitely not "inevitable" or "natural".

nora said on August 17, 2005 05:10 PM:

my dog poop ranking after this year's trip to europe, first is the worst: paris-vienna-lucca-zurich-lucerne. what's so difficult about picking up after your dog? most americans manage to do it!

jeannie said on August 17, 2005 08:45 PM:

no most americans do not pick up after their dogs --
and who cares?!
i think there are more pressing issues than dog
mess. keeping dogs in the city is not "cruelty" - starvation, beating etc. is "cruelty".
people have pets & people live in cities.

Horst said on August 17, 2005 10:21 PM:

"Cruelty" may not be the adequate English word for "Tierquälerei", but that's still what it is. You can't tell me that keeping a German shepherd in a 50 m2 flat is "artgerechte Tierhaltung".

Juliet said on August 18, 2005 01:33 PM:

And how many people do you know who actually really keep a German shepherd in a 50 m2 flat?Also, even if they lived with a dog on such tiny space, a dog only needs 1 m2 space to sleep and relax and people do walk their dogs from time to time and get them out of the house. If they didn't, you would not be able to step into the dog shit, as you seem to be doing on a regular basis :)
I reckon it is much crueler to cage birds, not to speak of all the cruel transports of animals etc. Keeping dogs in flats is not cruel at all since dogs as are being walked and get lots of attention from their owner.

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