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(New Jersey, NJ) — The poop police are on the scene in New Jersey! A condominium complex in Edgewater, New Jersey, is cracking down on residents who don’t pick up after their dogs by using DNA testing to identify the responsible pet owner.
At Hudson Harbor, dog owners must pay 200-dollars to have their pet’s DNA registered with a company called PooPrints. If dog waste is found anywhere on the property, management collects it and sends it to a Tennessee lab to match the DNA.
Owners who don’t clean up can be fined 250-dollars, with penalties rising for repeat violations.
The policy has drawn mixed reactions from residents. One person said, “You can’t always pick it up… Sometimes we’re outside in the dark in a non-lit area, and I can’t always find [the feces].” She added, “They’re the poop police… I think it’s a little over the top.”
But some support the measure as a way to enforce responsibility. As one resident put it: “If you left your poop out there… they’re coming for you now.”
Management defended the program, saying it “holds our residents responsible,” and one staffer even likened her role to being “a detective of sorts.”
Condo associations, apartment buildings, and HOAs across the country have adopted or considered similar DNA-based pet-waste enforcement programs. These require residents to swab their dog’s cheek for a DNA profile that is stored in a database, so that any unscooped dog waste can be matched back to the dog (and owner) and fines applied.
The Tennessee-based company PooPrints — the same service used in the New Jersey case — reports its program is used in over nine-thousand communities nationwide. It’s also active in Canada, Mexico, and the U.K. and claims DNA testing can reduce uncollected waste by up to 96-percent.
