Saturday, June 14, 2025
Few dog owners enjoy clearing dog waste from their backyards. But Glen Cove native James Coniglione has turned scooping poop into a new, and undeniably unique, sector of the home care industry and has seen decades of business success.
Since graduating from SUNY Delhi, Coniglione has been a local entrepreneur. He recalled a light bulb going on in his head at a family friend’s barbecue 25 years ago, when he saw an attendee gag after stepping in a pile of dog feces. He began asking customers at Tireworks, his Glen Cove tire shop, if they would consider paying for pet waste removal.
“I said to my customers, would you pay for this service?” he said. “Half of the people said absolutely not, and the other half said if anyone can make money with dog poop, it’s you.”
Coniglione created Scoopy Doo Dog Waste Removal in 2000. He started the business with just one truck, a bucket, and around 20 clients. Twenty-five years later, his business clears over 1,000 backyards a week with a fleet of 14 trucks and a team of technicians.
The company schedules its service from once a week to up to five times a week, and the charge depending on the frequency of yard cleanings and the size and breed of the dog(s). Workers walk in a grid pattern around the yard, bag the excrement and take it away.
Coniglione explained that after the first year, his venture began seeing success. A feature in The New York Times helped increase the business’s exposure. Over the years, it expanded to serve Long Island, Westchester County and upstate New York.
On a rainy afternoon on Wednesday, Coniglione was all smiles in a red “got poop?” shirt at a 25th anniversary ribbon-cutting ceremony at the company’s headquarters on Forest Avenue, attended by Glen Cove residents, business leaders, elected officials, and Scoopy Doo employees. There was effusive praise of Coniglione’s contributions to the community.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine could not attend, but Glen Cove Councilwoman Marsha Silverman presented a citation on Lavine’s behalf. There were also citations from County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s office; County Comptroller Elaine Phillips’s office; the County Legislature’s minority leader, Delia DeRiggi-Whitton; Legislator Samantha Goetz; the Glen Cove Chamber of Commerce and the North Shore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
DeRiggi-Whitton and Maxine Mayreis, president of the Glen Cove Chamber of Commerce, praised Coniglione’s creativity, commitment to the community, and success in carving out a new economic industry.
Afterward, Coniglione thanked the attendees, and described the past 25 years as an “amazing ride. He added that he was looking forward to the next 25 years.
“It means the world to me,” he said of the recognition. His family has been in Glen Cove for four generations, he added, and has always given back to the community. “To be recognized, and have everyone come out now, means everything to me.”
Scoopy Doo has worked with local animal shelters in Glen Cove and animal rescue organizations across Long Island. The company has also provided the city of Glen Cove with sweepers to clean up waste from geese, and has worked to get dogs that have been in shelters for years adopted by offering a year of free poop-scooping to anyone who takes them in.
The pet-waste-removal industry has grown across country, with revenue consistently increasing over the past five years and reaching an estimated $270 million in 2024, according to IBISWorld, a company that produces business industry research reports. The rise in pet ownership, a growing awareness of the environmental impact of pet waste, and the convenience and professional quality of the work have boosted the demand for such services.
Coniglione is viewed as a respected authority on pet waste removal, and considers himself a “founding father” in the field. The 60-year-old works with people across the country as well as in the United Kingdom, helping aspiring entrepreneurs grow businesses of their own.
He is heading to Idaho next week for the inaugural “Poo-Con” convention for animal-waste-removal specialists, where he is slated to be the keynote speaker.
If interested in weekly service or a one-time cleanup, contact Scoopy Doo at (516) 676-0083, or visit its website, ScoopyDooNY.com.
