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Paris dispatch

Merde most foul

Parisian dog-owners face on-the-spot fines if their canines are caught adding to the 15 tonnes of poo dumped on the capital's streets every day, writes Jon Henley

It is, in its way, a revolution. "All persons accompanied by a dog are henceforth obliged," says the text, "to remove immediately, by whatever means is appropriate, all deposits that said animal abandons on the public highway, including pavements and gutters, as well as in squares, parks, gardens and green spaces."

After decades of trying - and failing miserably - to clear up after its 200,000 dog owners, Paris has finally changed tack: as of yesterday, dog poo has been declared illegal and anyone allowing their canine to contribute to the 15 tonnes of it dumped on the capital's streets every day risks a fine of up to £300.

"It's the strict application of the principle that the polluter must pay," said Yves Contassot, the deputy mayor in charge of parks, refuse collection and environmental affairs. "For far too long we've relied on a plainly nonexistent sense of civic duty among Paris dog-owners. Now we're finally going to get tough."

Seventy Paris hygiene inspectors have already been authorised to dole out on-the-spot fines to offending proprietors, and as soon as parliament gets round to rubber-stamping a new law after the June general elections, some 1,400 city surveillance officers will be similarly empowered.

Meanwhile, an enthusiastic brigade of 150 rollerblading, white-T-shirted youngsters have been specially hired to rush round town at dawn handing out helpful 36-page explanatory leaflets to surprised owners taking their pooch for an early-morning poo.

Mr Contassot said that, from now on, the town hall was relying on such educational efforts and beginning to phase out all dedicated dog mess clean-up programmes -including the famous green "motocrotte" scooters introduced back when president Jacques Chirac was mayor.

Mr Contassot said the 70-odd motocrottes cost the city more than pounds3m a year and succeeded in collecting only about 20% of its dog mess. Ordinary street cleaners were more effective, he said, and much less expensive.

In all, the official estimated, Paris spends £6-10m a year clearing up its dog excrement. An in-depth 1998 study by the hygiene department calculated that the cost to the taxpayer worked out at some £3.70 a kilo, or roughly 30p a turd. For the equivalent sum, the city renovated the entire Avenue d'Italie in 1999.

And those cost estimations do not include collateral damage in the form of healthcare bills and loss-of-earnings claims from the average 650 Parisian men and women hospitalised every year after slipping up on a dog deposit.

A variety of initiatives have been tried to solve the poo problem to date, all more or less ineffectual. One involved the recruitment of a 15-strong band of "canine counsellors" whose unenviable job it was to try to reason with often recalcitrant dog owners and point them politely in the direction of the gutter.

Last year, the council also launched a shock poster campaign featuring big blown-up pictures of innocent young children, blind people and wheelchair users heading unknowingly towards a particularly offensive-looking pile of dog mess. The slogan read: "Dog owners: you're absolutely right, why bother to clean it up? Let them do it for you."

The initial response from dog-owners to yesterday's news was not notably encouraging. "People will get up at 2am to avoid the cops if they have to," said Richard Simonnet, a French bulldog owner in the Marais.

"Personally, I don't object to clearing up - as long as the dog's healthy. But what are you supposed to do if it has an upset stomach? They didn't think of that, did they?"

Mr Simonnet said only relentless 1984-style repression and massive fines would really work. Paris police have neither the manpower nor the willpower to devote such resources to a problem that, "whatever way you put it, always sounds vaguely laughable", he said.

And, despite the town hall's tough new regime, Paris is still a long way behind some European cities when it comes to fighting dog dirt. In spotlessly clean Geneva, for example, dog-owners caught in flagrante face a minimum fine of £1,600 - and repeat offenders can be stung for a walloping £8,000.

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