New York was the first big U.S. city to pass a pooper scooper law, in 1978. Dog waste complaints are now at their highest level since at least 2010, and the law is almost never enforced.
dog waste complaints to 311 from January through September 2026, the most for that stretch since at least 2010.
2.8 times the 2021 total for the same months (1,174). Includes about 1,000 extra complaints during the February snowmelt; without February, 2026 is still the highest since 2011.
summonses for failing to pick up after a dog in all of 2025, according to the Department of Sanitation. 311 logged 2,660 complaints that year.
In the law's first year, the city wrote 1,616 summonses, after a three-month grace period with 7,000 warnings, according to a 1979 press release from Mayor Ed Koch.
Complaints fell to a pandemic low in 2020–21, then rose every year. February 2026 alone brought 1,230, when snow from the Jan. 25 storm melted and exposed weeks of waste.
Bars: monthly reports. Line: 12-month average. Both 311 codes combined.
Across 2010–2025, February ran about 55% above an average month, and the bump appears even in nearly snowless winters. Long stretches of snow cover make it much worse.
Index: each year's average month = 100.
Health Department license data show no rise in licensed dogs since 2021. The dataset has gaps, and most dogs are never licensed, but there's no sign of an ownership boom behind the complaints.
Active licenses on June 30, deduplicated. NYC Dog Licensing Dataset; 2022 records appear incomplete.
of dog waste complaints each year since 2022 are closed with "no violation" or "no condition" found. By the time an inspector arrives, the dog and the owner are long gone.
different addresses generated complaints in January–September 2026, up from 1,408 in 2022. The rise is spread across the city.
Top 15 of 59 community districts: 8 in the Bronx, 5 in Brooklyn, 2 in Manhattan. The top two rates are driven partly by a few buildings: Fort Washington Avenue and Riverside Drive in Washington Heights, and 764 Fenimore Street in Crown Heights South. Population: 2020 Census.
Each red stop is a cluster of complaints within about 150 meters, roughly one or two blocks, from Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2026, with complaints from at least three addresses. Tap a stop or a row.
At #1, 884 Riverside Drive alone accounts for 131 of 283 complaints. Locations are 311's geocoded points.