MADRID -- To keep them clean, most cities have their own army of street cleaners. More meticulous cities employ leaf blowers and tree-branch cutters. Madrid goes so far as to employ its own force of dog-poop cleaners.
Riding scooters with high-powered vacuum cleaners on the back, they putter along public streets and pathways on the lookout for fecal matter. Once a suspicious pile is detected, they pull out a long nozzle from a space-pack in back, take careful aim, and press a button. Only the stain remains.
The city refers to them as "eco scooters" or "green scooters," but everyone here knows them as motocacas (pooper scooters). Certain residential sectors of Madrid are more mined than battlefields, and a moment's inattention can have disastrous consequences for both foot and nose.