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An Earth-Friendly Way To Pick Up What Your Pets Drop

Tribune photo illustration by Jay Conner

"Mandog," the mascot of Flush Puppies, demonstrates the use of the biodegradable, flushable pet waste disposal bags at Davis Islands dog park.

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By RICHARD MULLINS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 18, 2008

TAMPA - With an embarrassed chuckle, Chris Mercer admits he still has no way to talk politely about his new product.

"I'll have to figure out a way to talk about dog poop, and be positive and treat it like a real business," Mercer said.

That's because Mercer's new company is bringing the world "Flush Puppies," a biodegradable, flushable dog poop bag that apartment and condo-dwelling dog owners can use to pick up their pet's droppings and flush them down the toilet rather than stow in their indoor trash cans.

"No, I didn't expect to be doing this in business," he says.

That said, Mercer's nascent start-up is gaining speed, with several high-end pet stores in the Tampa Bay area picking up the product: Wag Pet Boutique on Davis Islands, Downtown Dogs in Tampa, Groovy Cats and Dogs in Carrollwood and Hyde Bark in South Tampa.

Internet sales also are heating up amid a marketing campaign that takes hipness cues from the digital generation who are moving into their first apartments and condos. First, there's "Mandog," the official company mascot - a man in a black dog suit who shows up at local dog parks to promote Flush Puppies. Mandog also has his own page on the social Web sites MySpace and Facebook, where he offers deadpan film critiques of TV commercials and other online videos. The Tampa-based company also has purchased advertising spots around YouTube's most popular online videos.

No More Bags On Windshields

With Flush Puppies, necessity truly was the mother of invention.

Several years ago, Mercer, 32, was living in one of his rental apartments on Davis Islands. (His "real" job is owner of more than a hundred furnished corporate apartments.) He and his now ex-girlfriend owned three Italian greyhounds: Enzo, Madison and Leo.

"Sometimes my ex-girlfriend would walk the dogs in the morning and not know what to do with the poop bags, since it was like a quarter mile around the back of the apartment building to find the Dumpster," Mercer said. "So she'd leave the bags on the windshield of my sports car. I thought, 'There has to be a better way.'"

He thought about flushing the bags, but he could find no bags that dissolved in water. He toyed with a few prototypes, but ran into drawbacks with each:

•Paper thick enough to hold the droppings would not dissolve fast enough in a toilet.

•Plastic grocery bags would clog the drain, and probably weren't good for plumbing in general.

•Corn starch bags on the market didn't hold up in field tests.

After some Internet research, he discovered bags made of polyvinyl alcohol, or PVA. Hospitals often use bags made of PVA because staff can fill them with dirty linens, then toss the whole bag into washing machines, where the PVA dissolves in hot water, keeping staff and handling equipment cleaner.

Mercer contracted with bag engineers to develop material that dissolves in the cold water of a toilet. The first prototypes worked, and when Mercer ended up at graduate school at the University of Florida, his fellow students said he had a hot idea. Two friends at UF signed on to the new company: Josh Spoont, 27, and Paul Sharobeem, 29.

Late last year, the first official Flush Puppies products hit stores and went on sale online: $3.99 for a pack of 15 bags, roughly a one to two-week supply per dog.

Jennifer Fadal, owner of Wag Pet Boutique on Davis Islands, started stocking the bags late last year.

"It's a great product, especially with everyone focusing on being more green and greening their stores," she said. "I stock it right here at the register, because it's a product that tends to need a little bit of explaining."

The Competition

The three entrepreneurs know they have plenty of competition when it comes to picking up after dogs.

There's the standard: The plastic grocery bag, which has the advantage of being basically free (with groceries) and readily available.

Then there's a wide range of dropping-related gizmos. Perhaps the gold standard is the "Dispoz-A-Scoop," a device that basically is a disposable cardboard square that supports a black plastic bag held open by a square wire frame. That design lets the pet walker pick up droppings without touching them. The product slogan: "Ahhh ... the feeling of not feeling." A 24-pack sells for about $11 a box at Petco.

There's also the popular "Bags on Board" device - a tube that holds a roll of blue plastic bags and attaches to retractable dog leashes. A leash and bag dispenser combination sells for about $30 online.

But rather than fight these rivals, Mercer wants to join them. "We're coming out soon with a product that fits in the Bags on Board dispenser."

Whether the product takes off will likely be a highly personal decision for each dog owner.

Jeff Suzkowski of Harbour Island is a devotee of the Dispoz-A-Scoop. "It's fantastic, especially for big loads," Suzkowski said while walking his 7-month-old chocolate Labrador/pointer mix named Nikki.

Megan Bradley said she uses Publix grocery bags for her 5-month-old pug Oliver.

"I guess you could just use paper towels to pick it up if you want to flush it," she said. "But, you know, if I take him flying on an airline, maybe it would be good if he goes on the plane."

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com.

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