Last week we started to see media coverage pour in for a new app called Pooper. It's tagline was "Your dog's poop in someone else's hands." The idea was that when your dog pooped in a public place you could log its location and call for a pooper scooper to come and pick it up for you. Many started dubbing it the Uber for dog poop. Newsweek, The Washington Post, Fast Company, Mother Nature Network and many more have covered the phenomena of this app (and/or how it turned out to be fake.)
We were skeptical that such a business could ultimately work. (How could you keep the price low enough to attract users but high enough to attract would-be pooper scoopers?) But unlike many, we were not very skeptical that such a business existed. In fact, we were keeping an eye on it and requesting information about their progress. After all, who knows better than we Professional Pooper Scoopers about how high the demand is for dog waste removal in a country where there are an estimated 70-80 million dogs in residence?
But, of course, Pooper turned out to be an art project aimed at satirizing our app-obsessed culture. Does your dog poop? There's an app for that! Well, it turns out that there isn't. But the good news is there is a company for it! As long as your dog is doing his or her business on your property we will happily come and scoop it up for you. No app needed.