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DNA Tests Nab Poop-Scoop Scofflaws

Apartment buildings require dog DNA samples for tracking

By the Associated Press

Posted Jun 27, 2011 8:06 AM CDT

(AP) – 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.

Timberwood Commons apartment complex manager Debbie Violette poses at her desk with a DNA test kit for pets Friday, June 24, 2011 in Lebanon, N.H.
Timberwood Commons apartment complex manager Debbie Violette poses at her desk with a DNA test kit for pets Friday, June 24, 2011 in Lebanon, N.H.   (Jim Cole)
Now dog owners who don't scoop poop have nowhere to hide.
Now dog owners who don't scoop poop have nowhere to hide.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
Ultraworld
Jul 3, 2011 1:44 AM CDT
“It's one of the coolest things I've ever done as a property manager" You should kill yourself
allfordogdna
Jun 29, 2011 9:26 PM CDT
I manage Twin Ponds in Nashua. I've been using pet DNA for quite some time to catch violators with TREMENDOUS results.  The system is incredibly easy to use and the implentation for both getting the DNA and catching the violators is just as easy. My property has over 250 dogs and counting and our property is clean!!!! The program is extremely affordable for the dog owners.  I can even show property owners how to use this system at no cost to them while keeping the fee affordable for the renters.  Email me at dogdnatoday@gmail.com and I will glady provide your community with more information.
JackNelsonSteward
Jun 29, 2011 7:52 AM CDT
This is an example of one of the possible benefits of capitalism. A few years ago DNA testing was an obscure, expensive "magic bullet" that could be applied by highly trained technicians working in government labs.  It's like the plasma televisions and computers ... they have been made increasingly commercial and ... well, do you remember when a 40" plasma TV was $25,000.00?  Our first functioning desktop computer was an Amstrad, for which we paid about $700.00 in a Sears outlet. It had 640 K ..... K .... of disc and used discs the size of saucers just to tell it what it was when you booted it up. Someday I'll calculate, at $700.00 per 640k, how much this 900 gig computer would cost ... Now you can get DNA kits to test dog shit. You KNOW that if you can test dog shit with it, it can be used in other applications. Wanna know who drove the car? Whose mess IS that in the bathroom? WAS Suzie at the house while you were away? Technology becomes ever more available and affordable.

Copyright 2012 Newser, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.

 
DNA • DNA evidence • poop scooping • dogs • dog poop

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