China’s high-rise litter problem: struck by dog poo, stuck for justice
- An unpleasant case of excrement thrown from a tall building highlights the difficulties in dealing with a continuing social issue
- Supreme People’s Court’s call for tougher punishment hampered by low public awareness and lack of evidence
The last thing Shanghai man Tony Qian expected while walking with his wife on grassland below the 28-floor residential buildings of their community was to be hit by a falling piece of dog excrement.
And yet, as he looked up to see where the foul missile had come from, he saw a tissue fluttering to the ground which, on closer inspection, was stained with the same muck which had struck him on the shoulder.
Qian was lucky. There have been numerous reports in recent years of critical injuries and deaths caused by people flinging dangerous items – including a bicycle, stroller and even a kitchen knife – from their high-rise windows.
But his efforts to bring the poo perpetrator to justice went nowhere, even though police identified a household at the top of one of the buildings with a pet dog. The owner denied throwing anything and Qian did not have sufficient evidence.
“I couldn’t take the trouble to do a DNA test on the excrement just for this, could I?” Qian said.
The difficulty of obtaining evidence, as well as low public awareness of the problem, means the situation is unlikely to improve soon, despite a guideline issued by China’s Supreme People’s Court in November urging harsher penalties for high-rise littering, according to legal experts.
The guideline ordered local courts to hand down stricter punishments in such cases, noting that intentional high-rise littering should be “severely punished in accordance with the law”.