Number Two Giveaway

Detroit Zoo Gives Away 'Number Two': Animal Park Will Offer Exotic Poop Souvenirs to Visitors

SARYN CHORNEY 

This is not an April Fools’ joke. Not in the least. This is premium poop we’re talking about here, folks. The Rolls-Royce of feces. The Dom Perignon of dung.

The Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak, Michigan, recently announced it will give away free poop to the first 1,000 GreenFest guests on Saturday, April 14, in celebration of Earth Day on April 22.


“The first 1,000 guests to visit the anaerobic digester educational display will receive a token for a 5-gallon bucket, courtesy of The Home Depot Foundation, to be filled with free Detroit Zoo Poo – an herbivore compost processed in the DZS’s anaerobic digester and produced in partnership with Detroit Dirt,” states the release.


Jake Rapanotti/Detroit Zoo

In layman’s terms, that means a digester — a container that treats substances with heat, enzymes, or a solvent in order to promote decomposition or extract essential components — converts animal manure (500 tons each year!) and other organic waste into methane-rich gas in order to help power the animal hospital at the zoo. Extra exotic and nutrient-rich fertilizer is a byproduct of the process, and the zoo promises it is “great for putting in your garden.”

The event, which is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is the park’s sixth annual festival focusing on community environmental stewardship and is an effort by the Detroit Zoological Society to improve sustainability and zoo facilities.

So, while some of us are holding out (hopefully without too much discomfort) for the next World Toilet Day, Detroit gets to have its free buckets of poop and, uh, expand its local gardens and green spaces, too.