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City Uses DNA To Sniff Out Dog Poop OffendersComments:252
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Sep 17, 2008 11:16 PM
from the take-a-bite-out-of-crime dept.
from the take-a-bite-out-of-crime dept.
An Israeli city is using DNA analysis of dog droppings to reward pet owners who clean up after their pets and punish those who don't. A six-month trial program launched this week, in the city of Petah Tikva, to tackle the dog mess problem in a high tech way. The program asks dog owners to take their pets to a veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA. The city will use the DNA database it is building to match droppings to a dog and identify its owner. Owners who scoop up their dogs' droppings and place them in specially marked bins will be eligible for rewards of pet food coupons and dog toys. Those who leave the poo on the street face fines. I wonder what sin you had to commit in a previous life to find yourself the official dog poop examiner of Petah Tikva, Israel.
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Let me be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let me be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
Like, who gives a crap?
don't be so negative (Score:3, Funny)
This technology is the shit!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'll tell you why I care. Because the neighbor's dog is a freaking mutant, and eats things that *aren't food* and don't get digested. I've had to clean up everything from condoms to scraps of cloth and likely carpet fibers to a piece of metal that I suspect was an underwire from a bra.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Also, there are times when I can smell it even without standing in it. Or hows about when my mulching mower tries to mulch a big pile? It gets in the wheels and sometimes the clippings bag which I have to empty manually. Ewww!
I don't own a dog and any
Re:Let me be the first to say... (Score:4, Funny)
Actually it's a good idea...
for me to poop on!!!
Hey, I have an idea! (Score:5, Interesting)
How about I don't take my dog to the vet for the swabbing?
I'm no criminal mastermind, but it just might work!
Re: (Score:2)
I think, maybe, the point was more so the rewards program... but then maybe just skim through what happens if you don't clean up after your pet.
Maybe.
No vet, no license for your dog (Score:5, Informative)
In Israel, you need to have a license for your dog from the city/municipality where you live; you get it when you take your dog to the vet for its annual rabies vaccination. All licensed dogs must be "chipped" also.
I suppose getting caught walking an unlicensed dog will also get you a hefty fine, and your dog will be confiscated. I wouldn't think that most municipalities in Israel have a lot of budget for paying people to check on dog licensing and enforcing the "clean after your dog" laws. Maybe this is one way to try to generate a new income stream for the municipality (people already pay for licensing their dogs)?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Best euphemism for bodily waste ever!
dog cr@p problems in Israel (Score:5, Informative)
I live in Modi'in (in Israel), city of the future. Apparently in the future most people refuse to pick up the poop of their horse sized dogs. This isn't a problem only in my city, this is nation wide. It's a weird cultural thing.
In any case, we are electing a new mayor, and at a public debate we heard from all of the candidates. It was running neck and neck until one stood up and said he'd sick the gestapo on anyone who doesn't pick up after their pets. Judging by the reaction he got, dude is gonna win by a landslide!
This method would let any city clean up it's streets without hiring more cops, which sounds great to me.
Let me guess... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Coupons are a form of corporate advertising. Get the company who wants the coupons handed out to foot the bill for the DNA test. If there's any resistance, create a mandatory package deal where if one wants to advertise on city owned property (busses, etc) a sponsor must also do the dog poop analysis promotion.
Re:Let me guess... (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was working on a grizzly bear census about a decade ago (it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds...), we collected tufts of hair from rub trees and scat.
I think that doing the DNA workup on a hair sample was a bit more than the scat, but that both of them were at least $5, maybe $10 each. The census didn't have enough money to do it all up front, so they were stashing samples in freezers while they tried to get more grant money.
Prices may have gone done since then, but I'd guess that doing a sample on each dog crap is going to take a lot of time and money. And besides, don't they imagine that people are going to put the dog crap from their yard into the boxes as well? I mean, if you get a toy or something each time, aren't people going to load the boxes up?
Re:Let me guess... (Score:5, Funny)
...they were stashing samples in freezers...
You mean that wasn't double chunk chocolate ice cream?
bad karma? (Score:2)
Actually I think whosoever is doing this accumulates 10 x the good karma normal people accumulate in one life-time.
One gets used to it - think about a coroner job....
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
1. invented those little sticky lables that go on fruit
2. invented advertising
3. invented reality tv
4. being George Lucas (I mean he's gotta pay for Jar-Jar Binks)
5. being any RIAA lawyer
6. and finally (for special irony) being a fundamentalist ideologue of any stripe
Privacy Concerns anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
As far as I am concerned, this is an invasion of privacy.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Agreed, we need less government interference in my dog's rectum.
Re:Privacy Concerns anyone? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, keep your nose out of my business!!!
Re: (Score:2)
You Sir, owe me a keyboard! ;-)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
As far as I am concerned, this is an invasion of privacy.
Do *you* like stepping on dog crap? I certainly don't. I think using doggy DNA testing to catch bad neighbors that let their dogs poop all over the place is a public service. Furthermore, dogs don't have a right to privacy. In general, municipalities already match owner to dog via licenses, so there is no additional loss of privacy here.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
An abandoned, steaming and odoriferous object in plain view (and smell) on a public street has claims of privacy? Please tell me more.
Re:Privacy Concerns anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
It would seem to me someone who was worried about their privacy being violated by dog shit wouldn't have left said dog shit laying around in public.
Re:Privacy Concerns anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
No it's not. If you leave your dog's poop on a public place, it's free game for any DNA analysis or whatever.
You might argue that owning a dog is a matter of privacy and should not require a permit or anything (with which I disagree with, and will elaborate if you want). But if you come to me claiming that a pile of shit left on a public place is your private property, I'll ask if you're insane... :-)
Heh (Score:2)
How about spending money on something with a better cost-benefit ratio? Like free designer flu-masks for the sick? Turning all water fountains into GOOD filtered water rather than shitty chlorine water?
Cigarette butts (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cigarette butts (Score:5, Funny)
What? Send them to the vet to get a DNA swab so they'll be eligible for coupons on dog food and doggie toys?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Send them to the vet to get a DNA swab so they'll be eligible for coupons on dog food and doggie toys?
no but a promise of free cigarettes might do the trick...
How to abuse this system (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Steal poo from the poo bins. Then go around spooning poo into inappropriate places. A bunch of obedient citizens get fined unfairly and go apeshit. Stand back and watch as the whole system falls apart.
You mean, watch the shit fly?
Another city to add to Triumph's blacklist (Score:2)
Looks like it's another city to add to Triumph's blacklist.
Now I can just imagine irate neighbors taking poop and planting them to get their neighbors in trouble.
Also...wonder how this will affect that dog-poop in the mail business.
Wait...the DNA sampling is "voluntary" right? It's not required to register your dog's DNA?
btw, the mainstream news had a segment on it.
Re: (Score:2)
You mean that being in a country which has been a "war zone" more or less since it came into existance dosn't already qualify?
Now I can just imagine irate neighbors taking poop and planting them to get their neighbors in trouble.
All you'd need would be a sample of the dog's DNA.
There's also the possibility of people trying to seed the "poop bins" in order to get more freebies.
You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, part 85984374 (Score:5, Insightful)
As I said, you've got to be kidding me. Isn't DNA analysis still kind of expensive?
Re:You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, part 85984374 (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, part 85984374 (Score:4, Informative)
Actually we could use something like that in SoCal's parks. There isn't a single day when I don't see new dog turds on my usual running route. This is despite huge signs tha tell you to pick up after your dog, free plastic bag dispensers and large trash cans everywhere.
Many dog owners are assholes, that's the only way I can see it. Tax the hell out of them and pay somebody to clean up the dog shit.
I happen to live in Petah-Tikva (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Can I guess - you have never been to Israel, have you?
1. It's not Israel the country, but a single rather small city within Israel, with their own INDEPENDENT budget
2. As someone already responded, DNA tests are quite cheap, especially in Israel
3. It's just so typically arrogant to assume that you understand better than a the people who decided to do it, a bit of credit man...
4. In Israel we use shekels, not dollars (see #3)
Cheers,
Anton.
Previous life discovered... (Score:2, Funny)
I wonder what sin you had to commit in a previous life to find yourself the official dog poop examiner of Petah Tikva, Israel.
Why, isn't it obvious? You'd have to be the sort of person who keeps posting these idle articles to the front page.
Fact to take away: DNA testing is cheap (Score:2, Interesting)
1) vet's can keep DNA records of pets; and
2) cities find it economical to enforce poop-scoop laws by DNA testing dog shit.
Sheesh.
Cost??? (Score:2)
This is absurd! What the hell does this kind of DNA testing cost anyway? If it's in the article I'll never know because I'm NOT reading an article about DNA sampling of shit for the purpose of issuing fines. Moronic idea. This government must have a lot of money to blow (or be willing to force it's citizens to pay up big for stupidity)
Wrong dept (Score:3, Funny)
This one should have come from the i'll-get-you-my-pretty-and-your're-little-dog-too dept
Obligatory ISR (Score:3, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, Dog Poop Sniffs YOU!
Re: (Score:2)
We give billions to everybody, so, no.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not really. The vast majority of American aid to Israel is military, and even that is generally "credits" that can only be spent at American companies, not actual cash for Israeli R&D.
OTOH, if they start using the standard military issue M16A1 (from the Nixon era) to shoot the offending dogs (or owners...), then US taxpayers may be paying...
Re: (Score:2)
I'll bet it's funded by the people who leave their dog's shit in the road.
They pay a fine and the cost of the DNA test.
Great plan, I wish they did it in my town. It's full of shit :(
X.
Re: (Score:2)
Correct. My intention wasn't to troll. I remember learning that America gives billions to Israel for military purposes each year. But money is money, and who isn't to say that if they didn't get this money, they wouldn't be having to pool money from elsewhere to cover their military operations?
Poor analogy: A hypothetical household gets $30k/year. Family has a burglar alarm costing $1k/year. What if a portion of that $30k/year is "free" money given to the family from another family? What if that money is cu
Re: (Score:2)
Or worse, someone takes your dog's poop out and leaves it on the sidewalk to be found because they don't like you?
Apparently the thousands and thousands of cameras in England are no substitute for DNA testing... wonder what the ROI and cost comparisons are?