NORTH PORT – Whenever your pet goes number two, it’s your job to scoop the poo.
In honor of International Pooper Scooper week, North Port Parks and recreation wants to remind us to help keep North Port clean and pick up after our pets.
“We’ve started sharing information at our events that share why picking up waste is important, about the bacteria that can be present, how you can properly dispose of it, and we have some signage in those pet waste stations that are readily available in our parks for people to use,” said Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for the City of North Port, Laura Ansel.
The city collaborated with The Rock Box Music School & Stage to make a parody of Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby…
Ansel says the collaboration was a perfect opportunity to help reach another generation
“The kids in the video have friends, they’re going to see the video they’re going to share it among their friends and not only does it give them a platform to showcase their talent but it also allows us to reach a younger generation with what is now probably a vintage song but in a fun way,” said Ansel.
The fun initiative happens to also be a law
“There’s a Sarasota County wide ordinance on picking up immediately after a pet,” said Parks and Ground Manager of the City of North Port, Jeff Nelson.
Besides being smelly, pet waste can contain a lot of bacteria which is why it’s important to scoop
“It eliminates or reduces the chances to spread bacteria, worms different things, to animals, other pets, and it can cause illness to humans, so we want to make sure we’re not doing that and trying to make people, dog owners, pet owners more aware of that situation,” said Nelson.
Overall it is the right thing to do…
“It’s good for the community, for the environment, the water quality, and then just for health and safety reasons as well,” said Nelson.
For more information on the initiative you can visit their website here.