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Property Managers Use DNA To Sniff Out Dog Poop Offenders
Nerval's Lobster writes "News changes during holidays. It gets thinner and lighter and weirder as the hordes of writers and editors who produce the overwhelming flood of news, updates and infotainments go home to annoy friends and family rather than readers and advertisers. Top points in ridiculousness, however, go to the condo- and apartment-complex managers in Braintree, MA, who were inspired to become amateur zoo-geneticists by resident pet owners who not only refused to clean up after their pets, but challenged the apartment managers to prove it was their pets contributing the increasingly hazardous, unpleasant piles of doggie doo on apartment properties. Rather than put up with a neverending supply of potential EcoBot fuel on marring the landscaping, facilities managers took cheek swabs of all the dogs on the property and sent them to A Knoxville, Tenn. that provided DNA profiles under a program with the dignified name 'PooPrints.' Now, for a fee of only $60 per pooch, residential managers can confirm the provider of a pile of PooPrintable material by comparing the DNA in the dog with the DNA in the pile. 'Now you don't really have to worry about dog poop,' said one fan of the practical application of zoological genetic analysis. 'The grass is now ours again, we don't have to worry about it [poop], and that's a good thing.' Restraint is just as important as innovation, of course, so the building managers made a point of telling the AP reporter who wrote the story that they wouldn't extend the effort to identifying which pooch peed on which bush and when. 'That's a little more difficult. We are not going to tackle that.' Finally, in this holiday season, something to be thankful for." The city of Petah Tikva, Israel started a similar identification program in 2008.
You should own a fucking cat instead.
. . . by pooping on the grass yourself. . .
Inconsiderate is what people are... I know dogs can be picky but come on... You bought the thing. You take care of it. Yet you can not control one bit and walk 3 blocks so your dog can take a crap somewhere?
Yesterday while raking my yard I saw a couple who *waited* for at least 10 mins for me to go inside. So they could let their dog piss on my yard eventually they gave up. Thankfully all the dogs in the neighborhood have killed 100x3ft of my grass. I have tried planting more hardy type grasses (so I do not have to water as much). But nothing survives but weeds. Never mind the 3 empty fields nearby. Least most of my neighbors pick the crap up which is about all the credit I can give them.
The normal and civil thing is to pick up after your dog, rather than fouling communal space.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Dog crap is pretty crappy as fertilizers go (depending on their diet). More often than not, it will harm the grass more than help it.
See http://voices.yahoo.com/common-misconceptions-dog-feces-fertilizing-1285581.html?cat=32
Besides, why the heck do you allow animals if you aren't willing to put up with the results of your decision? Charge a fee for animals and pay somebody to come around and clean up the poop, there are services that do that very thing.
Dog poop on the lawn is a result of dogs and not picking up the poop. If the poop is cleaned any less often than continuously; people will step in, fall in, and roll through (with a wheel chair) dog poop. Owners should pick up dog poop from common spaces.
-Dave
Besides, why the heck do you allow animals if you aren't willing to put up with the results of your decision?
The owners are expected not to allow dog poop to remain where it's dropped. They're the ones failing in their responsbility. Unless the managers are DNA matching dogs to poop for their own amusement (we've all done it), I assume they're doing so in order to take action against the owners and force them to live up to their responsbilities as pet owners. That's hardly "putting up with it."
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
This doesn't strike me as ridiculous at all. It would only be ridiculous if the apartment failed to build the cost of the DNA analysis service into the fines it assigns to offending dog owners.
I wonder how much it would cost to preemptively create a DNA database of all the dogs so you have a ready-to-go database for matching poop when its found. Then they wouldn't have to rely on humans "reporting" the offenders. Just get the poop, have it analyzed, and fine the owner.
That's just a stupid rule, as it would ban for example a mint condition Jaguar E-type which looks far nicer than any recent BMW or Mercedes. Even Enzo Ferrari called it "The most beautiful car ever made". The New York City Museum of Modern Art recognised the significance of the E-Type's design in 1996 by adding a blue roadster to its permanent design collection, one of only six automobiles to receive the distinction.
Naw, we can't do that. That would mean taking personal responsibility and we know that's an evil concept which shall never be mentioned.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I agree it's ridiculous to have to resort to doggy DNA but it's the only thing that finally forced dog owners in my building in Boston to stop letting their pets poop right in front of the building's door. Nobody wants to navigate a minefield of dog poop to get in or out of their home and it's incredibly frustrating and irritating that your fellow residents don't care enough to clean up after their dog.
What's really ridiculous is that Doggy DNA is necessary.
You are assuming you can find and afford maintenance people who are willing who are willing to quietely clean up poop, are you not? So come on! Put your money where your mouth is and start hiring a bunch or people willing to clean up whatever shit they run in to!
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
http://www.newsdaily.com/article/f9886d5ca8858bb2ebb18e47106a62f2/dog-doo-scofflaws-get-bagged-through-dna-testing
Anyway,its nice to have the convenience of letting my dog poop in my own yard.
And apparently you also think it's OK to let your dog poop on a communal yard. Your neighbors probably disagree.
The lawn at my apartment is for all the residents to enjoy, not just the dog owners.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Wow, what a wonderful way to improve the already adversarial relationship between property managers and tenants.
I agree, it's a total dick move on the part of the lazy fucks who refuse to clean up after their dogs. Just think, if they'd be responsible adults and clean up after their pets, the managers wouldn't need to waste money on DNA testing, a cost which will inevitably be passed along to the other tenants.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Its good for the grass anyway, natural fertilizer.
No, it isn't. The problem for the grass is the urine. It kills grass and, since dogs like to piss on each other's piss, it leaves whole patches of dead dirt.
My end-unit townhouse was where the whole neighborhood let their dogs defecate. We paid for a garbage can and little bags so the pet owners wouldn't even risk touching any, yet they still left the feces. Unless someone was watching, of course. My Saturday ritual was shoveling everybody's dog shit into a trash can so the stink wouldn't permeate my home. I'd even leave the shovel out in hopes that some considerate dog owner would help out, but no. I'd just find the shovel, handle down, in the can the next day.
I finally sold the house and moved away because of dogs. Well, not because of the dogs. Because of their rude, inconsiderate owners.
:wq
FTA:
"Dog owners paid a one-time fee of $59.95 for the initial DNA testing for the database. Subsequent lab tests of dog droppings that end up identifying the offending animal result in a $50 testing fee plus a $100 fine."
This rates as one of the worst leads into a story I've seen on here. Someone is trying way too hard.
What does it say about me that I find this plan interesting? I would consider subscribing to your newsletter.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Or go to the local zoo and pick up some wolf/tiger/lion poo..
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."
Why not just put a security camera on the condo poop spaces?
It might help with crime too.
They are charging the dog owners, both for the initial test and for the forensics work later on.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
You've obviously never owned a dog. Sometimes your dog shits twice and you only have one bag. Sometimes you're rushing to work. Sometimes you can't find the shit.
Actually, I've always had dogs; the difference is, I actually take responsibility for my pets, unlike some folks.
Only have one bag? Use it twice. Rushing to work? No excuse for damaging someone else's property. Can't find the shit? Maybe you should be paying attention to your pet instead of finger-fucking your cell phone or whatever else you're distracted by.
Don't be a dick. This (and your) response is that of a psychopath.
That you think my belief that people should take responsibility for themselves (and, by extension, their pets) is the response of a "psychopath" proves several salient points for me: 1) you are apparently one of those selfish, irresponsible dicks who leaves shit lying around for other people to step in, and 2) you don't know what the term 'psychopath' means, either.
That, or you're getting defensive about me calling you on bad behavior, and thus are lashing out in a pathetic attempt to marginalize an opposing viewpoint. Either way, you're not helping yourself by continuing to respond with increasingly aggressive insults.
Try facts next time.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Wow, what a wonderful way to improve the already adversarial relationship between property managers and tenants who are inconsiderate asshats
FTFY.
Really, anyone who can't be bothered to pick up their pets poop from property that isn't theirs is being exactly that.
It's a small scale example of tragedy of the commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
You've obviously never owned a dog. Sometimes your dog shits twice and you only have one bag. Sometimes you're rushing to work. Sometimes you can't find the shit.
Sometimes they get the runs, and you cannot possibly pick it up, because it's liquid. The best you can do is pour some water on it to dilute it.
But my take on it is that if you don't have a place for the dogs to go, you shouldn't have a dog. Whether that's a designated walk area or your own yard. But your neighbor's lawns or vegetable patches is not acceptable, whether you pick up or not.
My apartment building started having a dog-shit problem (although my favorite, was the person who would pick up and bag their animal's shit, but would proceed to drop the baggie on the ground outside the entrance to the apartment...I think that is actually *worse* than just leaving it out in the grass). Management started posting notices that if the problem continued, they would just start saying "no dogs in the building". They pointed out that they would not be cancelling leases...which means that either you have to say goodbye to Fluffy, or you are on the hook for $$$$ in order to break your lease and find a new home on short notice. Kind of a hard-ass approach, but I haven't stepped in dog-shit since.
Bottles.
I agree completely. It's amazing to see how many assholes there are in this thread, who think it is the responsibility of everyone but the dog owner.