Dog Owner’s Guide to Scooping, 1973. NYC Municipal Library.
In honor of National Dog Month, we are taking a look at the history of rules, recommendations, and practices surrounding dog ownership in NYC through the collections of the Municipal Library.
There has been a law on the books since 1859 requiring all dogs in “any street or public place, in either the cities of New-York or Brooklyn,” to be “properly muzzled, or unless being led by a chain or string” as recorded in the 1866 Code of Health Ordinances from the Metropolitan Board of Health. (This was, of course, before the consolidation of New York City’s five boroughs in 1898.)
Information for Dog Owners: Why Dogs Must Be Muzzled When at Large, 1919. NYC Municipal Library.
In 1878, as reported in the daily City Record, Mayor Smith Ely, Jr. issued a proclamation establishing a dog pound at 16th Street and the East River, where all seized dogs would be delivered by the appointed dog catchers. Rather harshly, any dog “not claimed within forty-eight hours, and redeemed by the owner, by paying the sum of three dollars” was to be “killed and destroyed by drowning.”
A small 1919 pamphlet from the NYC Department of Health, Information for Dog Owners: Why Dogs Must Be Muzzled When at Large, cited a new sanitary code Section 17, which stated that “no unmuzzled dog shall be permitted to be … in any public park or place in the City of New York.” The reasoning for this new mandatory muzzling provision was that rabies, which was “almost always caused by the bite of rabid (mad) dogs,” was an “absolutely fatal disease.”
The 1919 pamphlet also reminded dog owners that they were required to “procure a yearly license and pay the sum of two dollars for each dog” and provide their dog with a collar bearing the license number. Failure to comply could result in seizure of the animal, followed by the same severe penalty noted in 1878: “if not claimed and redeemed within forty-eight hours thereafter, they may be destroyed.” Fortunately, while the licensing requirement remains on the books, the enforcement provision now simply states that officials may issue “notices of violation for failure to comply.” (Since at least 2017, as recorded in their annual reports, NYC shelters have completely stopped euthanizing healthy animals.)
Beginning in 1934, an amendment to the Sanitary Code specified that all dogs in public should be restrained by a leash of less than six feet in length, with muzzling no longer required. As reported in the New York Times that year, the Health Department believed this would be easier to enforce than the struct muzzling provision, and that greater compliance would reduce the then-growing number of dog bites in the city. The leash law remains in effect today, except in designated dog runs and during off-leash hours in public parks.
Annual Report, Department of Sanitation, 1946. NYC Municipal Library.
In 1918, the sanitary code was amended to require dog owners to prevent their pets from “committing any nuisance upon any sidewalk of any public street, avenue, park, public square, or place in the city of New York.” This provision, which came to be known as “curb your dog,” became the target of public campaigns beginning in the late 1930s. By 1946, according to that year’s annual report from the Department of Sanitation, there were 9,047 “curb your dog” signs placed in all five boroughs.
Pet ownership grew in the post-war period, and by 1961, the “curb your dog” campaign was deemed insufficient to address the growing piles of dog waste on streets and sidewalks. At the requests of Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Municipal Library Director Eugene Bockman compiled a report “concerning the methods used by other large cities to control dog nuisance.” While researching practices in cities across the country, he found that “very little has been accomplished elsewhere which would help New York City with its problem.” While most cities had nothing on the books beyond a leash law, Milwaukee was then going so far as to propose an ordinance that would “forbid owners to have pets anywhere in the city… except in their own premises.” This was expected to be met by “loud protests from dog lovers and the humane society.”
Annual Report, Department of Sanitation, 1952. NYC Municipal Library.
Even in NYC, according to Library Director Bockman, former Sanitation Commissioner Paul R. Screvane believed that “dogs should be toilet-trained inside the house and continue that way instead of using city streets. In his opinion, it is inconsistent with modern hygiene to allow such a mess in the streets where many children play and people walk.”
Dog Owner’s Guide to Scooping, 1973. NYC Municipal Library.
In 1973, the city’s Environmental Protection Agency published a charmingly illustrated Dog Owner’s Guide to Scooping. While “pooper scooping” had not yet been codified into law, the small pamphlet appealed to pet owners’ “respect of property and good manners,” explaining how to clean up after ones dog with newspapers or a scoop, either homemade or purchased. A note from the EPA Administrator added, “Thanks for helping us make New York City a cleaner, more pleasant place to live.”
It was not until August of 1978 that a New York State law took effect in cities with a population of 400,000 or more, requiring dog owners and handlers to clean up after their dogs on public sidewalks, streets, gutters, and other public areas. Clipped articles from that era in the Library’s “Dogs” Vertical File highlight the controversy surrounding the new law. Those opposed to it, largely dog owners and even the ASPCA, argued that it would either be unenforceable or would lead to pet abandonment. Supporters insisted that it would change habits and create a climate of respect.
Dog Owner’s Guide to Scooping, 1973. NYC Municipal Library.
A July 28, 1978, article in the Westsider described the new scooping gadgets then on sale, as well as what must have been a short-lived, city-provided “Doggie Flush” at 207 West 10th Street—a 45-inch bowl set into the sidewalk that the owner flushed “by stepping on a conveniently located valve handle.” According to an August 2 article in the New York Times, a young woman in Greenwich Village who was openly flouting the new law intended to “read Thoreau to my cocker spaniel and teach her civil disobedience.”
A press release issued by Mayor Ed Koch in 1979, on the first anniversary of the “pooper scooper law,” announced that 1616 people had received summonses for failing to clean up after their dogs, following a 3-month grace period during which 7000 warnings had been issued. The Mayor took this as proof that the law was enforceable and noted that public peer pressure had also been effective in encouraging compliance. By 1985, on the seventh anniversary of the law’s passage, a joint statement from the Commissioners of the Sanitation and Parks Departments reported that 18,230 summonses had been issued, resulting in fine revenues exceeding $435,000. Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern called the law “one of the best things that ever happened to New York City parks.”
Of course, as any New Yorker could tell you, the original “pooper scooper” law did not completely solve the problem. Just last week, the City Council passed an additional package of four bills known as the SCOOP (Safe and Clean Outdoor Ownership Practices) Act, aimed at combatting “rising complaints about the poop smeared across the city’s streets.”
After 9/11, as the city turned its attention to disaster preparedness, the NYC Office of Emergency Management issued a 2002 guide to Disaster Preparedness for Animals in New York City. A 2015 version, called My Pet’s Emergency Plan, is now available in multiple languages through the Library’s online Government Publication’s Portal.
My Pet’s Emergency Plan (Haitian Creole), 2015, NYCEM. NYC Municipal Library
As reliance on “emotional support” animals has increased over the last decade, the NYC Commission on Human Rights issued a 2020 FAQ about Emotional Support Animals in Housing. It explained that “housing providers… must permit residents to keep emotional support animals as a reasonable accommodation for a disability,” and that emotional support animals are exempt from “no dog” policies.
Dog bites have remained a problem in NYC into our current century. The July 2017 issue of NYC Vital Signs, a monthly publication of the NYC Department of Health, was devoted to Preventing Dog Bite-Related Injuries among New York City Residents. Vital Signs revisited the topic in April of 2026, declaring that the rate of reported dog bites to New York City residents was at a ten-year peak.
While some issues remain constant, others transform over time, reflecting changing notions about public health, animal welfare, and the nature of our relationship with our pets. The Municipal Library’s collections offer a glimpse into that evolution through laws and official reports, as well as pamphlets, newspaper clippings, guides, and other everyday documents that capture how New Yorkers have been asked to coexist with their canine companions.
