By SAMUEL BLATCHFORD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan has had its fair share of warm weather days this winter.
That leaves many dog owners with yards and lawns to clean up, and some of them are relying on pet waste removal services to get the job done.
“A lot of people don’t know this business exists,” said Michael Morse, the owner of Scoop-N-Go pet waste removal based in Fenton.
He started his business in 2019, and it services Fenton, Linden, Holly, Flint, Howell and Clarkston.
Dog poop can mount up over time and become too much for some owners to handle.
“With the accumulation from the wintertime, people don’t want to clean up all that dog poop. They’re busy or they just don’t want to do it,” he said.
He said when the snow starts melting, business picks up for his company, and requests for services start to increase in March and April.
He said he currently has 65 customers.
“Usually I can do 20 jobs in six hours,” he said.
Scoop-N-Go offers one-time cleanups, once-a-week service for $60 per month and twice-weekly service for $90 per month, according to Morse.
Weekly service is the most popular, he said.
That’s also true for many pet waste removal companies.
Cristina McKay opened Puppy Poo Patrol, located in Brownstown Township in Wayne County, originally as a side gig, right before the pandemic began.
She said Puppy Poo Patrol grew during the pandemic.
“Four years later and we have over 200 clients that we service weekly,” said McKay. The company charges $65 per month to clean up after one dog.
Michele Darling, the owner of Stinky Dog Poop Scoop Service in Lansing, had the idea for a pet waste removal business in early spring of 2020.
The idea for the company came when she looked out her window one day thinking, “Oh. There’s a lot of poop. I wonder if other people are thinking the same thing,” she said.
Darling posted her services on a few Facebook groups.
“Within three days I had 47 appointments scheduled,” she said.
Darling has a different way of pricing than other companies. She charges by the bucket: $50 per 5-gallon bucket.
“I can do two buckets an hour,” she said.
McKay said pet waste services are still considered a taboo profession by many people.
“A lot of people have this misconception that if you can’t scoop your own dog’s poop that you don’t deserve a dog, and we’re trying to get rid of that stigma,” she said, adding that pet waste removal is no different than lawn care and house cleaners.
There are also instances of dog attacks during a clean up, said McKay
“We had a couple of attacks last year, myself and one on my tech.”
The attack sent her tech to the emergency room for treatment.
Darling is also on guard.
“Everytime when I walk into that yard, I survey it and see which fence I might have to go over, just in case,” she said.