Deja Poo: Aspen Mountain Plagued by Major Dog Doo Problem
ASPEN, Colo., May 2 (UPI) — As a major ski destination, sometimes the glitz and glamour of Hollywood can be seen high up in the mountains of Aspen, Colo. Away from the resorts, though, the town has a big problem — and it really stinks.
More than 600 pounds of a problem — piles and piles of dog doo on Smuggler Mountain that was built up over time, cleaned up, and piled up again.
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Smuggler Mountain is a popular place for hikers and runners and their four-legged companions. But a certain trail apparently hasn’t been a popular place to clean up after those pets.
“I don’t know who they figure is going to pick it up, but there’s not a poop fairy,” Pitkin County, Colo., Open Space and Trails senior ranger John Armstrong told the Aspen Times. “Where do we go from here? The community can’t be proud of that.”
Not only wasn’t the community proud of the massive dung pile; it found the stench difficult to stomach. So last month, volunteers worked to remove the massive poo cache and restore a little luster to Aspen’s smelly little corner of the Rockies.
And it was nice — while it lasted.
Four weeks later, about 50 new piles have reappeared in the same section of the trail. And that has officials trying to figure out how to enforce cleanup by dog owners.
Armstrong said they are even considering a rather extreme measure that’s being done in California — DNA-flagging canines and testing poo to match up the violations to the irresponsible owners.
“We could talk about doing that here,” he said. “We could look at higher fines, or cameras.”
A seasonal cleanup is also being considered, but Armstrong pointed out that the solution should be even more simple. If every dog owner cleaned up after them, he notes, no effort would be needed at all.
