Rest In Piece; For A While There At Least, We Used To Scoop Shit In This Country . . . Now We Just Let Our Dogs Crap On The Piles Of Snow Left To Evaporate On The Sidewalk
As the snow piles from the recent storm melt away and the dog shit that inconsiderate canine owners allowed to drop on top of them remains, let’s pay homage to Fran Lee, who died last weekend at the age of 99:
Posted: February 20th, 2010 | Filed under: HistoricalAt the behest of a New York doctor, Ms. Lee took up the cause of dog waste. In the early ’70s she founded Children Before Dogs, a group whose aim was the elimination of all such waste from city streets. As she explained often in interviews, Toxocara canis, a tiny roundworm found in dog feces, poses health risks, especially to children. At its most severe, it can cause blindness.
In staunch contrarian fashion, Ms. Lee initially fought the city’s plan to enact a pooper-scooper law. By her lights, such laws were far too lenient. In the world of which she dreamed, no dog would be allowed to besmirch the city’s streets for even a moment: instead, it would attend to its affairs at home, on newspaper, before padding outside. She envisioned, as she told The Times in 1972, a battalion of city “poodle maids,” who would prowl New York issuing summonses to the masters of dog offenders.
Ms. Lee’s stand put her at the forefront of the pitched battle over dog excrement that raged in the city for much of the ’70s. When she appeared in public, outraged dog owners hurled invective; occasionally they hurled the subject matter of the debate itself. Ms. Lee had no qualms about responding in kind.