Reference
Sources
This site makes claims about two laws and one signage campaign. Those claims are checkable, so here is the material they rest on. Statutory language is quoted from the text as published by the issuing body, not from summaries of it.
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1
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York City Health Code § 161.03 — Control of dogs and other animals to prevent nuisance
“A person who owns, possesses or controls a dog, cat or other animal shall not permit the animal to commit a nuisance on a sidewalk of any public place, on a floor, wall, stairway or roof of any public or private premises used in common by the public, or on a fence, wall or stairway of a building abutting on a public place.” Article 161, current text as published by the Department.
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/about/healthcode/health-code-article161.pdf -
2
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York City Health Code § 161.02 — Definitions (“animal nuisances”)
“Animal nuisances shall include, but not be limited to, animal feces, urine, blood, body parts, carcasses, vomitus and pervasive odors…” This is the definition that § 161.03 relies on.
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/about/healthcode/health-code-article161.pdf -
3
New York State Senate
New York Public Health Law § 1310 — Removal of canine wastes
The actual pickup requirement. Applies to cities of 400,000 or more plus Yonkers and Albany; requires the owner to remove feces from “any sidewalk, gutter, street or other public area.” Penalty up to $250. Exempts guide, hearing and service dogs.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PBH/1310 -
4
Wikipedia
Curb your dog
Documents the 1930s–1978 signage campaign instructing owners to have dogs relieve themselves at the gutter rather than the sidewalk, including twenty-five signs distributed in 1937 “at points around the city.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_your_dog -
5
American Kennel Club
We Scoop to Conquer: 40 Years Since NYC’s Poop-Scoop Law
Background on the 1978 canine waste law and the political fight that produced it.
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/we-scoop-to-conquer-40-years-since-nycs-poop-scoop-law/ -
6
NBC New York
NYC Eyes Ticket Blitz for Derelict Dog Owners as Sidewalk Poo Situation Spirals
2022 coverage of the Sanitation Department’s curbing-enforcement push, which described the pickup requirement as “the city’s ‘Curb Your Dog’ law, which was passed back in 1978” — merging the signage campaign and the waste law into one.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/more-dog-poop-on-nyc-streets-city-to-step-up-curbing-enforcement/3662246/ -
7
Wikipedia
Walter Kacik
The designer of the Department of Sanitation’s 1960s identity, hired by Commissioner Samuel Kearing Jr. to redesign the department’s logo, its trucks and the “Keep New York Clean” sign — introduced between 1966 and 1968 — and credited with the Curb Your Dog signs of the same decade. The instruction was a designed civic program, not folklore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Kacik -
8
VCA Animal Hospitals
Urine Scalding on Grass
“Spots of dead grass are common in areas where dogs have urinated, and it is due to the urine’s nitrogen content.” Also corrects the usual folk explanation: “A common misconception is that the grass burns because of the urine’s acidic pH, but there is no relationship between the urine pH and nitrogen content.”
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/urine-scalding-on-grass -
9
Con Edison
Transformer Vault Placement and Space Requirements
The utility’s own specification, on what the gratings in the sidewalk are for: “The gratings provide ventilation for the transformer as well as a means of entry for Con Edison personnel to maintain, remove, or install equipment.”
https://www.coned.com/-/media/files/coned/documents/es/specs/transformer_vault_placement-csp.pdf -
10
West Side Rag
‘Stray Voltage’ Is Shocking Dogs on City Sidewalks and Streets; How to Protect Your Pet — and Yourself
Reporting on contact voltage from deteriorated underground cables reaching metal at street level, and on why a urinating dog is particularly exposed to it. Context: Jodie Lane was electrocuted by an energized metal plate while walking her dogs in the East Village in January 2004; NYC Local Law 44 of 2004 followed, and Con Edison’s equipment is now surveyed for contact voltage under Administrative Code § 19-153.
https://www.westsiderag.com/2022/02/08/stray-voltage-is-shocking-dogs-on-city-sidewalks-and-streets-how-to-protect-your-pet-and-yourself
A note on method
Where a secondary source and a primary source disagree, this site follows the primary source. Several widely circulated explainers state that the 1978 pickup requirement is Health Code § 161.03. It is not. § 161.03 contains no removal language of any kind; the removal duty is in state Public Health Law § 1310. The two are quoted above so the difference can be read directly rather than taken on assertion.