Pet owners who fail to pick up after their pets can no longer stay under the radar at some Minnesota apartment complexes. Their landlords are scooping up the evidence and sending it to a lab for DNA testing to determine which dog did it.
No, it's not a far-fetched "CSI" episode -- just a new biotech solution to a perennial nuisance at rental communities. Instead of putting up with poop, property managers can require their pet-owning tenants to provide a DNA sample that's added to a database and used to identify offending pets and their owners. The result: Formerly anonymous dog droppings now can be traced directly to Joe Blow's beagle in Unit 215.
JJS Property Management of St. Cloud, which oversees 25 properties, recently implemented the new PooPrint program at its three "dog-friendly" locations.
"The reason we started was unresponsible owners who chose not to pick up," said Jennifer Ulmer, property supervisor. "Obviously, it's an eyesore, and a health and safety risk. Our goal was not to 'catch' people but to make sure we're maintaining our buildings."
And so far, it appears to be working. The company has seen a decline in dog-doo complaints since it started ID-ing the perpetrators -- and fining their lax owners on a sliding scale, depending on whether it's a first, second or third offense. (Ulmer declined to reveal the fine amounts.)
All of JJS' animal tenants -- about 120 -- are now registered in the program, she said. "We are serious about it; we do send it in. We've sent in maybe 20 samples, and we haven't had a second offense. Messes are almost obsolete now. It's a huge deterrent."
That's been the case at other complexes, where the threat of being outed and fined gives pet owners a big incentive to clean up their act, according to Jim Simpson, president of BioPet Vet Lab in Knoxville, Tenn., which introduced PooPrint earlier this year. "Once the program is in place, we test very little feces."
To implement the program, apartment building managers ask tenants to collect the initial DNA sample from their own dog, using a cheek-swab collection kit. The sample is analyzed by BioPet to create a genetic profile for each dog, which is then uploaded to a database for that rental property.