Mass. condo turns to DNA to force pet pooper-scooper compliance

One condo manager in Massachusetts isn’t messing around, turning to a top-tech, crime-fighting tool — DNA — to bust pet owners who refuse to pick up their doggies’ doo.

And they’re getting good results, The Associated Press reported.

Managers with the Massachusetts condominium community, Devon Wood, said they received so many complaints from residents about unpicked-up poop they stepped in that they had to take the harsh measures — which is basically scooping up the doggy deposits and sending it to a lab for DNA testing that can identify the breed and, ultimately, the owner.

“We initially didn’t — for a better part of a month — didn’t find any waste, which just floored us,” said Barbara Kansky, the manager of the 398-unit housing community in Braintree, of the DNA policy that took effect in July. That was after fruitless efforts to get residents to comply with pooper-scooper policy by polite letter and telephone reminders.

“We would call or send a letter, and that dog owner would say, ’prove it,’ ” she said, in the AP report.

So basically — that’s what they’re doing.

The Tennessee-based BioPet Vet Lab specializes in the DNA dog-poop testing process. All the pets in the community first had to provide a cheek swab. That information is stored at the lab and then used for comparison when the apartment sends in feces samples.

Some in the apartment community are hailing the system as a huge success.

“We use to see dog poop almost every other day,” said one resident and pet owner, Kerry Weidner, in the AP report. “You had to worry about where you walk on the grass because there was dog poop, a lot of different places. Now, you don’t really have to worry. … You can walk where you want, the grass is now ours again.”