This stinks.
The shortcomings of the city’s pooper scooper law fester on display in Kensington and Prospect Park, where the common sight of horses and their waste has forced Brooklynities to improvise solutions to clear the air and keep the peace among neighbors.
The decades-old city law mandating pet owners to remove excrement from sidewalks applies to dogs and dogs alone, according to the Sanitation Department.
Some people call that a double standard, yet for the most part, it works.
Except in Kensington — the horseback riding capital of Brooklyn — where an imperfect agreement has evolved among the stable owner, neighborhood groups, the city and officials in Prospect Park to tackle the nostril-infiltrating, eye-popping scourge of horse manure.
The responsibility falls to the barn hands of Kensington Stables, on Caton Place, to troll the streets and sweep away the evidence of the steeds.
The stables has accepted this chore to be a good neighbor, though, technically it’s the city’s obligation.
“Generally, the barn hands pick up around the neighborhood,” said Walker Blankenship, president of the Kensington Stables. “I have made it a general policy to handle this. We don’t make a stink out of it.” (It does appear that the pun was intended.)
But the cleanup is not handled immediately, as dog owners are required by law. Worse, it takes hours — or more — before the volunteer cleaning crew arrives at the scene of the un-crime, creating a physical obstacle for pedestrians and a wafting wall of partly digested hay, oats and the occasional carrot for everyone nearby.
“It smells like a toilet,” complained Julia Cooper, inside Prospect Park, where nags trot. “It smells so bad, you’re always turning your head.”
On top of the team from the stables, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department says its maintenance crews are deployed for doody duty when waste collects inside Prospect Park.
Outside the greensward, the Sanitation Department says any remnants would be eliminated during normally scheduled street sweeping patrols
“If there is manure on the streets, we’ll hit it with a mechanical broom,” said Matt LiPani, a spokesman.
Despite the best efforts of Blankenship’s troops and roving city workers, the urban landscape on Kensington’s quiet blocks is still littered with equine effluent. But it’s not as bad as it was before the stables agreed to clean up the stink bombs.
“Sometimes it gets out of hand [pun perhaps intended], but we haven’t had any complaints in over a year and a half,” said Randy Peers, chairman of Community Board 7.
But the apparent double standard still forces canine owners to curb their pets, while horseback riders can gallop into the sunset without getting their hands dirty.
And that really stinks, some said.
“My friend walks her dog and she has to clean up after it. Why don’t they?” scowled Frida, a Park Slope resident who declined to give her last name.
Blankenship said it’s impractical to expect equestrians to get down off their high horses and bag the refuse.
“It’s just not feasible for riders to pick up horse manure,” said Blankenship. “Many of our riders are beginners and it’s not easy to get off and on.”
