My Dogs' Poop Is Insignificant

Marcellus Harper, 1315 Emerald St. NE, explained to Marc Borbely where he lets his dogs Penny and J.J. defecate, and why. Penny and J.J. are both very small.

If my dogs ***, they *** in the dirt, in the patch around the tree — which, to me, is fine.

Look at the size of my dogs. Whatever they move through their bowels is really basically insignificant. My dogs use the bathroom in the house most of the time, because they do stay in the house.

I let them out mostly for air, not to use the bathroom, and if they use the bathroom, as I said, they use the bathroom on the dirt. If they ever used the bathroom on the sidewalk, then I would clean it up.

However, I see dog doo on the sidewalk all the time. Personally, it doesn't bother me, as a dog owner. It is kind of frustrating to have dog doo on the sidewalk, but there's no yard. I mean, everyone has dogs — so it's just kind of something that you deal with slightly, as being a resident in D.C., and also being a dog-lover.

Before I lived in D.C., I had a huge yard, and obviously, ideally, that's where we would all like our dogs to use the bathroom. But that's just not the case.

So when they go outside, they go by the trees?

Yes. They go by the trees, if they go outside. They never use the bathroom on the sidewalk. If there was ever an incident where they used the bathroom on the sidewalk, then of course I would pick it up. But if J.J. — whose boo-boo is so insignificant — if he boo-boos on the dirt around the tree, I don't really see a need to clean that up.

I mean, it's great fertilizer for the dirt, it's biodegradable — I know what he puts in his body — he eats all natural foods — it's nothing harmful or toxic that's hurting the environment. However, there's trash all over the street by the hundred kids who live here — no one seems to be concerned with that.

And how do you know that they're only going by the trees?

Because I watch them. They don't have leashes because they're good, trained dogs. I don't need to have leashes. Look at them! They don't go outside that often. I let them go out to get fresh air, but that's basically it.

If I leash them, it's because we're in a park or something — which isn't really around here. They know better than to use the bathroom in the sidewalk, and, as I said, if they were to use the bathroom in the sidewalk, just like any parent — and I'm not equating that these are children — then I would take care of that mistake.

Basically, I know that it's not my dogs, because I'm aware. I'm very cognizant that they cannot doo-doo on the sidewalk. Now are they saying they have a problem with the dogs doo-dooing in the dirt, around the trees?

I guess by law, even around the tree, you're supposed to pick it up. So my sense is that some people probably do have a problem with it, even around the trees.

Okay, my sense is this. If it's a problem, then it needs to be kept as a general problem to the whole neighborhood. Anything that's directed to me, as an individual — I don't even want to hear it, because it's bull***, basically.

There are over 20 dogs on this street. How do they know where the dog doo is coming from? How do they know it's coming from my dogs? I don't know whether, maybe, you can sample it, and send it to a lab, and find out exactly whose dog it is, and penalize the correct individual — since these people seem to have a lot of time. That's a suggestion — that maybe we can hold the right person accountable.

Let's be clear. I don't have German shepherds. I don't have pit bulls. I have a Chihuahua, and a Chihuahua mix. After they doo-doo, a day later, it's gone. It shrivels up, it degrades — whatever. As I said before, they eat completely natural food — they don't eat any table scraps, nothing. It completely works with the environment.

However, if there's a law that I don't know about, then maybe somebody needs to educate me, but I'm just saying that I think everyone in this neighborhood needs to be educated about the law — it's not just my dog.

You can kind of sense the energy of the people here — they're not used to me not having my dogs on a leash. So I try to keep my dogs away from people. I'm not gonna put them on leashes all the time, so that they can't be outside, but I will accommodate — I don't want to scare anybody or impose on anybody's else's way of dog-handling.

But there are other dogs that aren't on leashes, and I walk up and down the street constantly and I see dog doo, and I'm like: "Of course that's not J.J.'s — of course that's not Penny's. It's bigger than both of them!" So where is it coming from? Who knows! I guess that's the whole point — who knows? How can I even start to guess?

I guess Theiel [Jackson]'s issue was that no one wants to step on dog doo-doo on the sidewalk and track it in the house, which is a logical statement to me. I'm a logical person — it makes sense.

So I'm gonna do my part to keep the doo-doo off the sidewalk, but, you know, the dirt patches, every now and then — there's so many dogs who use that, I guess that's the whole point.

It's just natural for dogs to sniff and to want to use the bathroom where other dogs use the bathroom. And dogs use the bathroom up and down [the street] — I guess if it was significant, I would make more efforts to bag it — I guess is the law? That's just where I'm coming from. I'm not trying to make anybody's life difficult, at all.

Marcellus, thanks for your time.

Thank you. §