If you own a dog, it’s your responsibility to clean up after them — especially picking up their waste during walks.
It’s a basic, common courtesy that ensures your neighbors don’t accidentally step in dog poop. But not everyone curbs their dog — leading some places to enforce the rules in unusual ways.
Like one apartment complex that is causing a stir among its residents after announcing a very unexpected new policy…
According to WTVG, Ravenswood Apartments, in Toledo, Ohio, has a problem with residents not picking up after their dogs. Recently, they sent out a notice to residents that they will be implementing a new plan next month to get to the bottom of the problem.
Their solution: using DNA tests on the poop to identify whose dog left it.
The company behind this unusual practice is called PooPrints. Their website bills the company as “the DNA solution for dog waste,” and they are reportedly used in more than 7,000 properties “to ensure a clean community.”
Properties that use PooPrints can send a sample of offending dog waste to the company’s lab, where they compare the DNA to cheek swab samples collected from local dogs, thus identifying the culprit.
The notice caused a stir among residents. Those interviewed by WTVG said they were “not happy” and said the complex didn’t have their priorities straight.
“There are more important things to spend $ on here such as renovation of 50-year-old apartments and a swimming pool that leaks,” one anonymous tenant told the outlet over Facebook.
A property manager who spoke to WTVG also expressed hesitancy, saying that PooPrints required residents to consent to a DNA swab of their dogs.
“In my opinion, the PooPrints are not the best solution,” the property manager said, adding that it would be better to send reminders and “keep up with the day-to-day grounds.”
Plans are reportedly not set in stone, so it’s possible Ravenswood will change their mind and stick with good old-fashioned “curb your dog” signs.
Other apartment complexes have started using PooPrints recently, generating mixed responses from residents. Some say it’s an overly extreme measure and invasion of privacy, while others are fed up with dog poop on their sidewalks and are happy with the strategy.
“I think it’s good if we can enforce people to clean up waste,” dog owner Michael Kundrat told KUTV after his Utah apartment started using the company. “There’s bags provided all around the necessary places, so there’s really no excuse to not cleanup after yourself.”
Meanwhile, PooPrints is making quite a mint on their unusual service. In 2018, CNBC reported that the company was going to bring in $7 million that year and expected to grow exponentially.
Chief scientist Chesleigh Fields said that while they have received pushback as a “Big Brother product,” PooPrints does help prevent offenses: “We’ve had reports of a 95 percent drop.”
“Once that dog goes in [the registry], he can be recognized anywhere in the world,” business owner Tom Boyd said. “So if that particular dog gets on a plane, and then goes to London, England, and they pick up his dog waste, we can instantly tell you where the dog is and tell you that’s the dog. He can never get away.”
What do you think of apartments using DNA testing to crack down on dog poops? Good idea or a little extreme?
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