Batley woman earns a living picking up dog poo.

Batley resident Emma Garner started her own dog poo picking business. Photo by Allan McKenzie.

Before starting ‘The Dog Poo Professionals’, Batley resident Emma worked for a large law firm for eleven years. After some of her colleagues were made redundant, her workload increased and became very stressful.

She had already began to research starting her own dog-poo picking business and had a few customers that she went to in her spare time.

“I saw an article about a man in Australia that had a dog poo picking business and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I put on add on Facebook and within ten minutes I had my first customer.

“The first job I did was a big one, the garden hadn’t been sorted in a long time. I did think to myself, 'God what have I gotten myself into', but it really wasn’t that bad once I got started,” said Emma.

After being reassured that her job at the law firm was safe, she received a phone call on her day off telling her that she was being made redundant.

However, Emma used her redundancy as an opportunity to pursue her dog poo picking business full time.

“Picking up poo has never bothered me. I now have hundreds of customers from across Yorkshire from all backgrounds and it’s given me so much more freedom.”

Eighteen months in and Emma says she works a third of the hours she used to but earns four times more money.

She also offers pet care services for cats, horses, rabbits and other small domestic pets such as does nail clipping, cage cleaning, mucking out stables, dog walking, pet sitting and a dog taxi service.

Emma wants to dispel the idea that her customers are lazy or bad pet owners, as many of them have complex needs.

“It annoys me when people assume that my customers are just lazy. I visit people that are in wheelchairs, have terminally ill children, people who have a broken leg, visually impaired, pregnant, elderly people.

“Even surgeons and beauty therapists that want to keep their hands as clean as possible for work. “It all boils down to your situation and your preferences. I have someone clean my car because I absolutely hate doing it.”