Photo: flickr.com Joshua Ganderson
A young South Auckland woman keen to work with animals, is starting her own business, cleaning dog faeces away from people’s gardens. She’s called it “Lose the Poos”.
21 year old Jasmine Williams says she loves dogs, and was keen to set up a dog day care business. However because she’s starting out and doesn’t have a suitable property, or much cash , her dog waste collection was a viable alternative.
Jasmine says she’s being doing her research. She started a Lose the Poos Facebook page, complete with nifty logo of a dog paw, imprinted in green, and asked for expressions of interest. She also surveyed people on line about whether they would use such a business and says she’s had a good response particularly from owners of large dogs.
Jasmine's pooper scooper Photo: RNZ David Steemson
Meanwhile she’s bought a special long-handled dustpan and brush for the..er… job, and she has been delivering specially printed leaflets into local letterboxes..
New Zealand has one of the highest levels of pet ownership per person, well ahead of the US, UK and Australia. According to a 2007 survey 52% of New Zealand households had a cat, and nearly 30% had a dog. So says Encyclopaedia New Zealand. And that means there’s a minimum of a 1 million cats and dogs living in New Zealand houses.
Pet waste collection companies are already big business in the United States, rejoicing in such names as Doody Calls, Scoopy Poo. Another young woman based in Tauranga started her “Pet Poo Crew” business there in September, charging 105-dollars a month for collecting the waste of up to three dogs. But the business does now not seem to be operating.
The average dog excretes almost 300 grams each day. That‘s over two kilogrammes a week, and over a hundred kilos per year! The United States has seventy-eight million dogs and ten million tons of dog waste goes to the rubbish dumps each year.
Dog faeces are common carriers of heartworm, whipworm, hookworm, roundworm, tapeworm, parvovirus, giardia, salmonella, and E.coli!
Jasmine says picking up after dogs doesn’t bother her. She’s also available for dog sitting and dog walking, she’ll even take them to the beach.
Photo: RNZ David Steemson
As summer arrives Jasmine is getting some holiday jobs, picking up dog waste from people’s yards while they’re away on holiday. Jasmine Williams hopes to have her own dogs one day. Meantime she has a pet rabbit called Paddy and some gold fish.
