Spanish town fights back against dog poo by parcelling it up and POSTING it back to the owner



Barking mad or great idea? The Spanish town has launched an unusual campaign to clean up the problem

A Spanish town has hit back at dog owners who let their animals foul in public and fail to remove the mess.



Brunete, a small town 20 miles west of Madrid, employs 20 volunteers who patrol the streets on the lookout for dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets.

The volunteers ascertain the name of dog after striking up conversation with the owner before parcelling up the mess and sending it back to them.

A council spokesman said: 'With the name of the dog and the breed it was possible to identify the owner from the registered pet database held in the town hall,' reports the Telegraph .



The volunteers scoop up the mess and package it in a box with town hall branding.

It is marked 'Lost Property' and delivered by courier to the pet owners' address.

The campaign has been a huge success with a 70 per cent drop in the amount of dog mess found on the streets.

In a week in February Brunete posted 147 parcels back to unsuspecting owners.The town has 10,000 residents.



The unusual campaign was developed by award-winning advertising agency McCann - who pickled won the 'Sol de Plata' award at the Ibero-American Advertising Festival.

There have been several notable attempts to rid Spanish towns of the dog mess.



Last year in a similar attempt to tackle the problem owners were chased by a remote controlled car with dog mess on and a label reading 'Don't leave me – pick me up'.