Why enter the Mutts for the Bay Photo Contest?

You pick up after your dog day after day, keeping poop off the ground and out of our bay. Now, share a photo of your doggo for a chance to win some doggone-awesome prizes!

Other benefits of entering the contest include:

1. Sharing your adorable doggo with the world (just think of the “awwwwwws!”)
2. Having an official reason to use the poop emoji in your media posts.
3. Helping to spread the word that we should pick up after our pooches every stinkin’ time.

Mutts for Clean Water Contest Rules and Timeline

Hello fellow hoomans! Here’s how to enter the photo contest:

Take a picture of your doggo, post it with your pledge to pick up after your pooch, share it on Facebook or Instagram, and send a screenshot to us. We encourage you to get creative— take your fur baby’s picture inside or outside, in a costume or their furry birthday suit, looking sweet or looking furocious, it’s up to you. The sky’s the limit!

Enter the contest through Facebook or Instagram by April 30th .

How to enter on Facebook

• • After your photography session, like our Facebook page.
  • Then, post your doggy photo on your page, tagging us @Morro Bay National Estuary Program, screenshot your post, and directly message us.
  • Last, but certainly not least, make your pledge to pick up your adorable pooch’s less adorable poop to help the environment! To do this, just use this caption in your post: “[My dog’s name] and I dedicate ourselves to making our land and water cleaner by picking up poop”.
  • TADA! You are now in the contest! Good luck, doggos, may your hoomans get your good side on a good fur day.

How to enter on Instagram

• • After your photography session, follow us on Instagram.
  • Then, post your doggy photo to your account, tagging us @MorroBayNEP, and DM us a screenshot of your post!
  • Last, but certainly not least, make your pledge to pick up your adorable pooch’s less adorable poop to help the environment! To do this, just use this caption in your post: “[My dog’s name] and I dedicate ourselves to making our land and water cleaner by picking up poop.”
  • TADA! You are now in the contest. Good luck, doggos, may your hoomans get your good side on a good fur day.

We will choose three contest winners, with one in each size category. Winners will be announced on Friday, May 8^th.

Help your friends and family members keep our waters clean

Know someone who doesn’t pick up after their furry friends? Here are some facts you can share to help them get with the poop-scoop program and keep bacteria out of our bay.

1. Dog poop is full of bacteria. A typical dog dropping has twice as many bacteria as the same amount of human waste.
2. Dog poop is not good fertilizer. It contains too much nitrogen and can burn your lawn.
3. Dog poop can also carry the following parasites and diseases, which can spread to people when we don’t pick it up

• • Whipworms (can live in soil for 5 years)
  • Hookworms (can live in soil for 3-4 weeks)
  • Roundworms (can live in soil for several years)
  • Tapeworms (eggs can stay dormant in soil for years)
  • Corona
  • Giardiasis
  • Salmonellosis
  • Cryptosporidiosis
  • Campylobacteriosis

These parasites and diseases can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea—yuck! The eggs of these parasites can stick to grass and other plants. When people touch those plants and then eat without washing their hands, they ingest the eggs, and infect themselves with the parasite. Kids, especially young kids who put their hands in their mouths, are especially at risk of infection.

Dog poop pollutes

When dog poop is left out, it can easily wash into our waterways, polluting nearby creeks, rivers, and our ocean. This adds bacteria to the water and makes it unsafe for people to wade, swim, or fish in the water because they might get sick from the bacteria in the infected poop.

These bacteria and parasites can also affect wildlife, as can the introduction of too much nitrogen. For example, dog poop contains a lot of nitrogen and, when it enters a body of water, it can cause an algae bloom. Algae takes a lot of oxygen from the water, leaving little oxygen left for other plants and animals. This can cause aquatic lifeforms that depend on oxygen to suffocate and die.

Help our bay and wildlife by picking up the poop, every stinkin’ time!

Morro Bay National Estuary Program brings together citizens, local governments, non-profits, agencies, and landowners to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary.

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