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Council posts dog poo back to owners in 'clear up' campaign

Dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets have had their animal's faeces posted back to them by a council as part of a campaign to tackle the problem.

Officials in the Spanish town of Brunete, near Madrid, teamed up with advertising agency Mcann to orchestrate the stunt, which has seen instances of dog mess on the streets drop by 70%, reports The Local.

In February, the council recruited 20 volunteers to watch for people who don't clean up after their pets and then strike up casual conversation with them to gain information.

"They'd ask them what the dog's name and pedigree was. With that information they could find out the address of the pooch's owner from a registered pet database we have," explained Brunete's Town Hall spokesman.

The offending item was then boxed up and delivered back to the owner via courier while cameramen filmed the incident.

The spokesman said that the campaign had been "well accepted" in the Spanish town and that the streets were now cleaner.

They said: "We're not sure whether the volume of poo has gone down because they're more afraid of getting their dogs' excrement delivered back to them than of being fined."