Communities require dog DNA tests to ID unscooped poop
Condo and apartment complexes are requiring dog owners to submit DNA samples to help them identify which pets are leaving messes.
I used to go outside barefoot in the morning to get my newspaper. Until one day I stepped in – ick – dog poop. After that I was more careful, but I was extremely annoyed that one of my neighbors was letting his mutt poop in my yard every day and not cleaning up. I never discovered who it was.
Some condo associations and apartment complexes have a new measure to fight dog poop: DNA testing. As a condition of living in the community, owners will have to get their dogs' DNA tested so the association can keep the information on file.
If any unscooped poop is found, the association can send a sample off to find out which offending pooch (and owner) is at fault.
The latest association to sign up for this doggie CSI program is the 458-unit Village of Abacoa in Jupiter, Fla., just up the road from Palm Beach.
Condo leaders say the association is spending $10,000 to $12,000 a year to clean up what dogs are leaving in elevators, stairwells, carpets and common areas outside.
"The smell is disgusting. Residents are embarrassed to have company. Dog crap is everywhere," property manager Susan Nellen told The Palm Beach Post.
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The association plans to charge residents $200 each for the tests until Aug. 31, when the fee will rise to $500. The test costs only about $90, but the rest of the money will be used for cleanup and poop bags provided to owners.
The owners of dogs who leave their offending excrement in inappropriate locations can be fined up to $1,000, with liens places against their property if they don't pay.
The use of doggie DNA to identify which dogs have left messes is becoming more common. An apartment complex in New Hampshire is requiring tenants to submit their dogs' DNA when they rent, and a complex in New York plans to do the same. But a condo board in Baltimore tabled the idea of a doggie DNA program after opposition from residents, deciding to explore other options.
What do you think? Is requiring owners to give up their dogs' DNA a good way to combat the problem of errant poop? Or is it too big an invasion of privacy?
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Gasoline at $5.00 per gallon. Home forclosures and umemployment rampant. Middle East aflame with radical islamists. Justice system a joke as serial rapists ( Strauss-Khan) and child murderers (Casee Anthony) run free. Mob's of spoiled, "everybody owes me" and "Iss gonna gets mines" liberal teens robbing business's and terrorizing the public.
All this, and we get stories about DNA testing of Shitzu's!?????
Great TV sitcom material here. Instead of "Melrose Place" it can be called "Smellrose Place". Or, instead of "90210" it can be called "K9-pew-10" or even instead of "Two and a Half Men" it can be called "Shoe full of crap then". Instead of "Desperate Housewives" it can be called.......... well, "Desparate Housewives" hahahahahahahaha.
"Shite in the City", "DNA for dollars", "Stinkfeld", "CSI Jupiter", I can go on and on!!
Saliva swabbing for discarded swizzle sticks?? Personally, I would rather scrape doggshit from the tread of my shoes than engage one liberal in conversation. Seriously, what is worse?? Five minutes of holding my nose or listening to some nasally voiced 30 something liberal drone on and on about the Gilmore Girls marathon they watched the night before. ALl the while, saying the word "LIKE" every other word.
"...and I was like wow, and he was like whatever and like my BF like totally like....
Why should I have to step in dog-poop to pick up my own dog's poop. Uh...yea it's happened. Ewwwww! Also...I want to tell the "little" crappy dog owners out there...YOUR DOG'S POOP STINKS and STICKS TO OUR SHOES just like BIG DOG POOP....except sometimes....you can't really see it that well on night walks!!!!! Get over yourselves and pick up the poop! DNA testing....a little over the top.....I'm thinking BB guns.
I have 3 questions for those of you who do not pick up after your dogs.
1. Would you invite someone, even a friend or a relative, to walk around inside of your home if they had just stepped in your dogs poop?
2. Would you like your children or grandchildren to play in an area where people don't pick up after their dogs?
3. Would you like it if other people let their dogs poop in YOUR yard?
I think it's a great idea and I'd be among the first to take my dog in for testing because after living in a dog filled neighborhood and not owning a dog for years, having to clean up other dogs' messes in my yard was a huge bone of contention for me. I now own acreage and have a dog but you won't find any doggie-doo on my property because it gets cleaned up as soon as it gets deposited.
People who complain about it are probably the ones not cleaning up the messes of their own dogs
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
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