DNA Tests Nab Poop-Scoop Scofflaws

Here's the scoop: Some apartment complexes are using DNA testing on dog doo to find out who's not cleaning up after their pets. A new complex in New Hampshire, for example, is requiring residents to submit samples from their dogs so DNA profiles can be put on file. When uncleaned messes turn up, they will be identified using the commercially available test kits.

"We've tried doing the warning letters. We've tried all sorts of things," says the manager of the complex. "It's always a problem. It's just that the majority of people are responsible pet owners and there are a few who are not." The kits came from a Tennessee company called PooPrints, which says about 20 properties in the country have been using them. “It's one of the coolest things I've ever done as a property manager,” says the head of another development. (More dogs stories.)