Visitors to the island of Capri, a gorgeous Italian summer destination for the wealthy, are accustomed to movie star sightings, priceless views of the sparkling sea, over-the-top yachts – and stepping in dog poo? According to recent news reports, Capri’s mayor, Ciro Lembo, says it costs the tiny island in the Gulf of Naples around 5 million euros a year to keep the island clean. “Do you really think we will let the reputation of the island, whose beauty is coveted by the world, be compromised by bodily needs left in the streets by inattentive or arrogant dog owners?” Lembo said in an interview with Adnkronos, an Italian press agency.
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Don’t fear too much for the shoes of the world’s super-rich – Lembo has announced a plan to get to the bottom of the problem. Starting in June, the owners of each canine resident of the island will be required to submit a blood sample from their dogs to the licensing agency; according to La Stampa, one of Italy’s largest daily newspapers, this represents about 1,000 dogs, or one for every six human residents of Capri. When government ecological workers locate dog feces, they will call the police, who will send a sample to a laboratory where DNA will be extracted and compared with the results of the resident dogs’ blood samples. When the culprit is identified, the dog’s owner will be fined up to 2,000 euros. (We wonder: will visitors’ dogs be required to register their DNA at the yacht harbor or helipad?)
The high-tech approach to identifying poop-scoop scofflaws has been tried in other communities around the world. A news search revealed articles about DNA analysis of dog droppings in the town of Hernani, Spain; a high-end condominium complex in Baltimore; and in Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv. (The latter city tried a punishment-based (a fine for the owner) and a reward-based program; owners who scooped their dogs’ poop and placed it in specially marked bins on Petah Tikva’s streets were eligible for rewards of pet food coupons and dog toys.)
One company is ready to solve your community’s unscooped dog poop problem: BioVet Pet Lab, of Knoxville, Tennessee. Though the company is better known for its DNA analysis for breed identification for mixed-breed dogs and parentage verification for purebreds, in 2010 it rolled out a new service for communities that are being buried in anonymously abandoned poo. The service is known as the PooPrints Program, and it promises to “match the mess through DNA.”
– Nancy Kerns
For more information:
BioVet Pet Lab, (866) 883-7389;
PooPrints.com
