A Pet Waste Cleanup Service? Don’t Poo-Poo The Idea

Steve Murray
Wednesday - September 07, 2011
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Ali Mathews-Bacon hard at work at her chosen profession. You, too, can pay her to remove your pet’s poo. Photo from Ali Mathews-Bacon.

Ali Mathews-Bacon is the Poo Princess and she couldn’t be happier with the title.

Don’t get her wrong: The Kailua resident likes the problematic pooch byproducts as much as anyone, that is to say, she hates them. But that isn’t stopping her from turning the unwanted waste into a business opportunity.

Mathews-Bacon started Got Poo…?, a pet waste cleanup service, in July after her husband Mike read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Mine Sweepers, a New York company that is literally cleaning up in the doggy doo market. The article states the owner and his wife make about 150 stops a week, and at $12 a pop, poop pays.

“He was on the East Coast and he emailed me the article and I thought, ‘What a wonderful idea,’” she said. “I decided to make it my mission and created a business out of it.”


Mathews-Bacon began small with a postcard campaign to about 1,200 of her neighbors. She’s slowly picking up customers who prefer not to pick up. With a neverending supply of furry family members (yes, that also includes cats, since Got Poo…? doesn’t discriminate), Mathews-Bacon is confident her one-woman enterprise is primed for growth. And why not? Scooping poo is a growing business. DoodyCalls, a Charlottesville, Va., cleanup company, began selling franchises in 2004.

“The business is small right now, but we will get there eventually.”

The biggest danger from mishandling doggie droppings is not the ruined footwear but the parasites, bacteria and viruses that can be washed into adjoining property and local water supplies.

“I think the majority of people throw it in the green bin,” she says, “because I don’t think they know it is so filled with disease and is so revolting.”


Mathews-Bacon currently has the waste burned but hopes to soon create a composting system to be even more environmentally friendly.

Got Poo…? charges $12 for one dog and one weekly visit. Two visits a week runs $19. Kitty Litter cleanup depends on amount and frequency. For more details, call 497 9273 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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