Communities combat pet waste with doggy DNA

Picture this: It’s a beautiful, warm and sunny day on Daniel Island. You and your family decide you want to go for a walk on one of the many gorgeous trails the island offers. As you are walking down the trail enjoying the scenery, your daughter all of a sudden lets out a loud, shrilly shriek. Startled, you immediately turn around and see her, disgustingly staring down at her once pristine white tennis shoes - now covered in dog feces.

Although there are laws in place across the Lowcountry that state pet owners must pick up after their pets, some still refuse to heed the rules, leaving an unwanted surprise for someone to stumble upon later.

The issue is not unique to the area. In fact, the dog waste problem has become such a nuisance that there are now companies that can identify furry offenders through their DNA.

Established in 2008, PooPrints was the first company to offer a DNA service to commercial properties across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Since its inception, the company has eliminated the dog waste problem in over 2500 properties, according to its website. The Wharf 7 apartment community on Daniel Island uses the service.

The way it works is simple, explained South Carolina PooPrints representative David Barabas.

“When a community, neighborhood or town wants to implement PooPrints, they just register all the dogs with a cheek swab to get a DNA profile of that pet,” said Barabas. “There are already requirements to register your dogs and adding the cheek swab to that is a fairly simple process. Any community that implements PooPrints gets a DNA profile of all of the pups and when you find any poop, instead of cleaning it up, you take a sample of it first and send it to our lab. We’ll tell you which dog left it and then you can pass along the consequences to the dog owner, whatever that might be.”

For the irresponsible pet owner that leaves their poop behind, they can receive a fine of up to $500 at some apartment complexes and communities. At Wharf 7 on Daniel Island, the fee is a hefty one, but for good reason, added Barabas.

“In order to enforce something like this, there has to be consequences because the irresponsible dog owners need a reason to pick up behind their dog,” he said. “All the communities that are my customers have a fine structure in place and they have the DNA to back it up. All of these communities, neighborhoods and City parks rules and regulations already require you to pick up after your pet, but there’s never been a way to enforce it. If somebody didn’t see you do it, it wouldn’t get reported. But with the DNA, it doesn’t matter when it happened. No one had to see you do it.”

If a resident fails to register their pet, PooPrints’ science also makes it easier to identify the dogs that are unregistered, continued Barabas.

“I’ve helped the property management at Wharf 7 that have had to deal with some issues with people not picking up,” he said. “It’s just a matter of a handful of dogs not getting registered. We were able to pinpoint where the poop was and map out on the site map where it looked like the person was coming from an apartment complex, going to the mail kiosk with their dog and not picking up after them. We can really identify how many dogs there are that are leaving their piles.”

Although the process may sound a bit tedious for property management and residents alike, the reward is worth it, assured Barabas. And it’s pretty affordable.

“All the problems that are associated with people not picking up behind their dog goes away,” he said. “For example, in an apartment community, the smell and the passing of bacterial microbes goes away. It’s a win-win for everybody—residents, property management, owners. …Some of these places have pet fees between $300 and $600. If they want to make sure that the dog owner is paying for the cost of the registration, they might add $50 to the pet fee to make sure that cost is covered.”

For more information about PooPrints or to implement the program in your community, visit www.pooprints.com or email David Barabas at david@pooprintssc.com.