Dog-mess not cleared up hand-delivered back to owners as 'lost property'

DOG-OWNERS in a village near Madrid are receiving unpleasant home deliveries when they omit to clear up after their pets in the street – the council is 'returning' the excrement to them.

Around 20 volunteers taken on by the council of Brunete, in the Madrid region, have been closely watching dog-walkers and approaching them where they do not pick up and dispose of the animals' number twos.

Instead of directly accusing them, the volunteers strike up a conversation with the owner on 'how lovely' their dogs are and ask 'interested-sounding' questions on his or her breed and name.

This information is enough to identify the owners and find out their addresses from the town hall register, and the excrement is then parcelled up and hand-delivered as a 'lost and found' item.

To add to the embarrassment, when council workers present pet-owners with their 'lost property', they are often caught on hidden camera.

As a result of this unusual campaign, the amount of dog-mess seen on the streets of Brunete has reduced by 70 per cent.

“We're not sure whether that's because they're more afraid of getting their dogs' excrement delivered back to them than of being fined,” says a council spokesperson.

“In general, the campaign has been well-accepted, although a lot of people have called for designated areas to be set up where dogs can do their 'bits and bobs' – like everything, there are opinions for all tastes.”

The campaign, which mayor Borja Gutiérrez says costs next to nothing – unlike previous 'awareness' drives and fine warnings – has gone viral on Twitter under the hashtag #cacaexpress (literally, #pooexpress).