SASKATOON – Around 2580 BC, the Egyptians used stone blocks to build The Great Pyramid. Four thousand years later Michelangelo sculpted his masterpiece, Lorenzo dŽ Medici, from marble.
A couple of New Jersey entrepreneurs have come up with a 1990s addition to this list: PooPets made from dung.
This poop art may not be one of the seven wonders of the world and it’s unlikely to end up in the Louvre, but the spontaneous idea has turned into a full-time business for creators John Rothman and John Flaharty.
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“Why would you put a concrete turtle or carved-in-stone rabbit in your garden when you could put something in there that looked like rock, was as hard as rock, lasted for years and fertilized at the same time,” said Rothman.
The creatures, which range from the size of a thumb to a small dog, sit under plants or in the garden and slowly release fertilizer.
Rothman said the figurines have created a cottage industry in the community of Tewksbury, N.J. Amish farmers in the area hand-mold cow manure into 25 different PooPet sculptures including Stool Toads, Dung Bunnies, Turdles, Poopadilloes and Stool Pigeons.
Rothman and Flaharty retrieve the statues from the farmers, put them through a drying process and ship 6,000 per week to destinations in Canada and the United States.
Rothman said he’s had figurines that have lasted four years and kept their shape, but that hasn’t been the experience of Canadian distributor Derek Malone.
Back to nature
“We put some outdoors here in Vancouver last year and they’re still there, but they sure don’t look like the soil swine they were a year ago.”
Malone said sales of the product have been steady. Retailers have approached the product with mixed reaction.
“It’s either a real easy sale or it’s very difficult, there’s nobody that’s in the middle. They either think it’s disgusting and they don’t want to have it or they think it’s very unique and there’s a market for it,” said Malone.
Martin Luberti sells PooPets in his Saskatoon store. The critters range in price from $16 to $22. He said they’re a hot little novelty that will run for a year or so.
“If there’s ever been a sign that we’ve got too much money, this is one of them,” said Luberti. “One customer came in the store and said, ‘Who the hell would ever buy one of those?’ And then went and bought one.”
