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We might sometimes pander to the lower denominators around these parts when we cobble together specious internet city rankings. Sure, they’re entertaining, easy-to-read, and who doesn’t like hollering at their friends in New York, “You may live in NYC, but Cleveland’s No. 1 in hanging laundry out to dry! Suck it!”, but they do little to actually inform you about this fabulous city.

Which is why we also scour noted scholastic journals and research papers for validated facts about the Forest City to share with you. Our latest find, from one of our-go to leisure reading favorites, is from the
July 29 issue of “Applied and Environmental Microbiology.” It is there we discovered that scientists have recently confirmed that Cleveland is covered in dog poop.

To be more specific: Colorado University researchers studied the bacteria in the air four Midwestern cities and found that the fresh air in Cleveland and Detroit is filled with bacteria that is most commonly found in dog poop.

“We found unexpectedly high bacterial diversity in all of our samples, but to our surprise the airborne bacterial communities of Detroit and Cleveland most closely resembled those communities found in dog poop,” said lead author Robert Bowers, a graduate student in CU’s ecology and evolutionary biology department and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, based at CU. “This suggests that dog poop may be a potential source of bacteria to the atmosphere at these locations.”

Inhale carefully, Cleveland. And blame Fido if it doesn’t smell good.

(Via the Denver Post)

This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2011.

Vince Grzegorek has been with Scene since 2007 and editor-in-chief since 2012. He previously worked at Discount Drug Mart and Texas Roadhouse.

One reply on “Science: Cleveland Covered in Dog Poop”

  1. According to a newsletter for Ohio City residents I picked up that appears to be published by City Hall and the area’s councilmen Joe Cimperman and Matt Zone, there are 90,000 dogs in Cuyahoga County, and “If each dog poops twice a day, that could be more than 45 tons of doggie dropping every day!” (Exclamation mark theirs.)

    So they want you to “PUP” — pick up poop. Next time you see Joe or Matt, proudly tell them “I’m picking up poop!” See what they say.

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