This unique and undeniably important statue called “A dog that cleans up after itself with a dustpan and a broom” was erected by my friends with the help of citizens concerned about the city's cleanliness.
The aim of the project “Clean courtyard - clear conscience” was to draw the attention of dog owners to the problem of incorrect dog walking. Every day we all can see people walking their four-legged friends, but very few of them actually clean up after their pets.
I called a friend of mine, Victoria, and asked her to tell me in her own words how this idea was born and if she could share her thoughts on the project with the passage of time…
Here is what she said to me:
All my life I had dogs, but I had never even thought it was necessary to clean up after my dog until I saw a device specifically designed for it in a shop one day. And my eyes opened! I started to clean up after my dog, and I told all of my friends about my discovery and encouraged them to do the same. My friends responded very well to my words, as every single one of them had at some time accidentally stepped in a dog`s nasty mess, especially in spring.
This is how our small team of like-minded people came to be. We decided to raise the issue in our city to involve people to be more responsible with their dogs. And we created the project “Clean courtyard - clear conscience”. We wanted to do something unusual to attract attention of the whole city at once… This is how the idea of a statue in the form of a dog cleaning up after itself was born. Such a statue was a funny idea, but at the same time it draws attention to a rather serious problem! It`s as if the dog is saying “I can learn to clean up after myself, surely, but you are a human, it is much easier for you to do!” We also decided to install special garbage cans and bag dispensers which provide single-use bags and dustpans to help people get into cleaning up after their pets.
We spent three months trying to involve as many people as possible – sponsors, media, residents of the district in which we were planning to erect the statue, and we also talked with dog owners…
And finally our project was done! We held a grand opening of the statue and put into operation 12 garbage cans! It was a big celebration with songs, magic tricks and a lottery! There were many children there, and actually they were the target audience of the project, as from now on they will be growing up knowing that they should bear responsibility for their pets and clean up after them!
It feels so nice to come round the statue now. There are flowerbeds around it and there are many children there. It is now one of the attractions of Yekaterinburg! On the Internet I see a lot of positive feedback on the statue, and it was our main goal – to create awareness of how to take care of pets properly and to make people realize that cleaning up after their dogs is absolutely fine!
Kids who see the statue probably ask their parents “What does it mean? What is it for?” And parents while explaining the message we put into the statue also start to realize it themselves! Every year I come across many articles covering the issue, and this year I found out that in one of the cities of our region teenagers had taken the initiative and now are installing home-made bag dispensers! It means that our project lives on! And I am sure that after some time the idea of cleaning up after dogs will become normal not only in Europe but in our country as well! And our children will be better than us!
