photos by AleXander Hirka

Cavalcade of Canine Crap in NYC (1)

aleXander hirka
4 min readMay 28, 2022

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There are approximately 600,000 dogs in New York City. A minimum of one dog for every 15 human creatures.

Come join me on this brief tour of signs which blanket the city—desperate attempts to communicate with dog owners regarding the issues of their animals’ waste.

From pleading to demanding, these placards try to appeal to the leash-pulling passing parade of mammal-owners—to be responsible, respectful.
Some address aspects of health-consciousness while others focus on a consideration for nature or neighbors.

Many attempt the cutesy (dog owners love cutesy) in an effort to possibly engage these astute bipeds—y’know, the ones that have the largest brain in the animal world compared to body size.

But as most of you may have noticed about the human species in general—we are equal parts smart and selfish mongrels. After all, it is humans who invented robot vacuum cleaners—but still piss on toilet seats.

When confronted with their bad behavior they will usually present as defense that the problems lie with “just a few bad individuals”.*
Alas, the profusion of signs, and ruined or hurt flower gardens and trees, tell a different story. Not to mention the…

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aleXander hirka

Writer, visual artist, philosopher, autodidact, curmudgeon. More than half of what i do is make believe. https://alexanderhirka.nyc