One of the problems we've been encountering in Montpellier over this past week has been the constant need to watch the ground when we walk down the street in order to avoid stepping in the many piles of dog poo (or as the French refer to it, "les dejections canines" which sounds much more civilized). Apparently there is a 100 Euro fine if the police catch you failing to clean up after your dog, so I have been wondering why there could possibly be so much poo all over the streets if there is such a hefty fine.
The other thing that I have noticed in Montpellier is that for a city of such small size, there is a disproportionately large number of homeless people, especially compared to San Francisco which has no shortage of homeless. The difference is that SF has about just under a milion inhabitants, whereas Montpellier has somewhere around 240,000 people. I think without exception, every single homeless person that I have seen in Montpellier has been accompanied by a dog and sometimes several dogs. Given the large number of homeless people (or the SDF--personnes Sans Domicile Fixe as the French refer to them--in the US we call them BUMS), who obviously cannot pay a 100 Euro fine when the police see them with their dog droppings, it finally dawned on me that all the poo in the streets is from all the SDF dogs.
Apparently the reason there are so many SDF in Montpellier is because it is the only city in the south of France to have a law that if someone has a dog with them, they cannot be arrested. Dogs cannot be left unattended, so all of the SDF get dogs (and subsequently leave their poo in the street) so that they can carry drugs or whatever without fear of being arrested by the police. In essence, Montpellier has all the bums from Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, etc... so needless to say there is quite a lot of dog poo that one has to watch out for.
Many cities in Europe have had this same law in the past, but few still have it. John commented that he recalled seeing many dogs with bums in Italy (esp. of the rotweiller looking type), even though they probably don't have this law. Even though this law no longer exists (except in Montpellier), many European bums still own dogs as it has now become part of their "culture."
Anyway, I'm just wondering how long it is going to be before I accidentally step in a big pile of "merde."
2 comments:
You should have done an internship with your father. He loves to train and he would love to have you following him around the backyard avoiding Skit's deposits.
The piles of "merde" may be from the personnes Sans Domicile Fixe themselves!! Please do mind the pooh!
Post a Comment