City Uses DNA To Sniff Out Dog Poop Offenders 252
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.
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:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Must be. I mean, what is the big deal if a dog poops in someone's yard. Unless you have kids that play in the front yard, what does it matter? It is just nature's fertilizer....and it isn't like kids play out in the yards much today anyway, they're busy indoors eating cheetoes and playing video games.
I can understand in concrete 'jungle' of a very urban area where there aren't really many/any green areas, sure pick up after the dog, no one wants to dodge poop on the sidewalk,
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:2)
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.
So maybe you should start throwing your rubbers in the trash, not out the window?
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: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I've not in all my years ever seen until recently, this real animosity towards dogs using the bathroom in random yards while you take them on a walk through a neighborhood.
No one ever used to get all bitchy about it....hell, you used to never see people carrying something to pick up poop.....just was a natural thing that happened.
When exactly did everyone get so fuckin' uptight?
Re:Let me be the first to say... (Score:4, Funny)
Actually it's a good idea...
for me to poop on!!!
Re: (Score:2)
I don't want to be fined so I wouldn't give the city my Dogs DNA.
What's next are they going to require all citizens hand over their DNA so they can fine us for public urination?
Fuck that..
Re: (Score:2)
So they fine you for not giving it. Either way you get fined.
Of course the idea that this entire solution could be avoided if people cleaned up their own dog's crap seems to escape people.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
(emphasis mine)
Israel... Gestapo. I'm guessing you're paraphrasing? It would seem usage of the term would be rather frowned upon. I can't imagine the general population frequently employing such a phrase and saying, "oh, we're over that -- it's all history now."
Re: (Score:2)
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)?
The licensing issue is not really enforced, at least not in Haifa. As a responsible dog owner, I am glad to see this initiative. I hope it comes to Haifa soon.
Re: (Score:2)
It would be much easier to just pick it up, but imagine the fun when the city starts to look for dogs which don't even are in the same country. Maybe it will lead to the foundation of some sort of dog-interpol.
Over here we don't have DNA tests (yet), but there are so many rules that I'm not considering buying a new dog when my 13 year old crossbreed dies. Hope
Re: (Score:2)
why would you need a bottle? I usually have plenty with me everywhere I go.....
Re: (Score:2)
I ask this in all honesty because I don't know. I was in Okinawa as a child but not since but, well, don't they EAT them over there? As off color as your post seemed initially I wanted to respond because, well, it would seem to me that in all probability (if they DO eat them) that there would be no need to abort something that was raised for food. Many of us don't see dogs as food potentially but they do and if that is their culture then I can't see any reason why they'd simply terminate them other than to
Re: (Score:2)
I realized that this would be misleading. So I came back to say that's as close to the middle east as I've ever come. My understanding was, however, that dog was served in some Pacific islands, the Middle East, Asia, and parts of northern Africa on a regular basis. I figured I'd clear up the language if not my own understanding.
Re: (Score:2)
The shelters euthanize animals because their funding is limited. They do what they can, but new animals are coming in all the time, and if no one adopts an animal, they have to make room for the new ones somehow.
You probably would *not* want to consume the meat of an euthanized dog, though. We like to think we're doing it humanely, so the typical method is lethal injection.
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?
Re: (Score:2)
It's an common mistake, really. Anyone would think ice cream with bits of corn in it might actually taste good.
Re: (Score:2)
This isn't suburban USA; very few people have yards. That's why they walk their dogs on the streets.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080916/img/pwl-a-man-walks-his-dogs-in-227fa3f5bf54.html [yahoo.com]
Re: (Score:2)
But if they fine you $50 they've paid for the next 5-10 tests...
Re: (Score:2)
If it's expensive, pass the cost of the testing onto the people who don't scoop the poop!
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)
Then why step in it? If you don't like it, don't do it.
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:2)
Insightful? Folks, you're looking at this from the wrong end.
To be sure, there is no invasion of privacy in testing dog shit left around in public.
The invasion comes when every dog must be DNA profiled to be permitted to live in the city. How long before the same is true of every human in the city?
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... :-)
Re: (Score:2)
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...
Re: (Score:2)
You might have something there...
Re: (Score:2)
How to abuse this system (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
or use exlax
no....triumph will poop on anything...if he can get away with it.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a lot of damage done to the underlying grass from poo.
With enough creative accounting, it's possible this actually saves them money.
Re: (Score:2)
Which Grass are you referring to?
Plus, i thought dogs and cattle did not have blood groups like humans and chimps. They have blood family groups, but no A1B positive kinda stuff. They have A,B,C i guess although this is irrelevant for DNA testing.
Israelites have too much time on their hands i guess. As if they have solved the problem of jerusalem, golan heights, baby kidnappings, settlements, right-wing nut jobs, left-wing crackpots, middle-wing sufferers, etc.
Seriously, Israel should spend this money on so
Re: (Score:2)
This isn't Israel doing it. It's a city within Israel.
An employee who works for the government had an idea and made it happen. That employee probably couldn't solve the whole war thing, so figured they'd do this instead.
I can't cure cancer, but that doesn't mean I can't do my part to make the world a better -- or less poopy -- place.
Re: (Score:2)
Not that this is the way I'd like my tax money to be spent, but this is probably just a city investment in fostering a local budding biotech industry. A private company might even provide such a service at a loss -- just so that it could get the press -- and the credit for having do
I happen to live in Petah-Tikva (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
And I can assure you that dog poop is quite a problem here. There is a lot of small children on the outside and dog poop is more immediate danger to them than occasional suicidal bomber.
obviously the suicide bombers have to up their game a bit if the general populace considers dog poop to be a greater threat.
maybe they should invent a new type of "dirty bomb".
they may even make suicide bombing a green profession, allowing you to re-use your martyrs because there were no nails ripping them in half.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Having solved all other problems within their country, Israel turns it's attention and taxpayer dollars towards the onerous problem of DOG SHIT.
As I said, you've got to be kidding me.
Well, there's the government who's job is to handle things like war and peace, intercity roads, and fiscal policy. And there's the municipality who's job is to make sure that you have nice parks and that you don't step in dog poo. This is how a country operates.
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.
As a US taxpayer, I'd say my money... (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
If you don't like Idle, then TURN IT OFF IN YOUR PREFERENCES. (If you can't see the Save button, just keep tabbing)
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)
Prototyping for the security industry. (Score:2)
The security industry of Israel is renowned the world over. As soon as they have proved the concept on dog poop, they'll have a market to sell it to other countries, for dogs, and probably long pig as well.
Some of me thinks that this is just a trial of a technique to raise the public acceptance of ubiquitous DNA testing. Some of me thinks it may be an exercise in raising the public FEAR of ubiquitous DNA testing. You'd only have to try a dozen cases or so and soon everyone will be a-scoopin' that poop.
Yet a
canine feces (Score:2)
hrm (Score:2)
This is a joke... (Score:2)
Right? Please tell me it is...
really? (Score:2)
this is the most serious problem in israel today? what a waste of resources
Re: (Score:2)
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
Bigger fish to fry (Score:2)
I'm sorry, but doesn't Israel have bigger problems to worry about, like terrorist nations who want to exterminate the Jews and push them into the ocean? Aren't Arab states constantly lobbing missiles and sending suicide bombers over the border? In light of the constant threat of war, it seems silly to me that they're cracking down so hard on dog poop. Yes, dog doo in the street is annoying, but it's not something I'd ever want tax dollars spent on were I an Israeli citizen.
Also works for humans! (Score:2)
"In other news, vets will also be asking pet owners to provide a cheek swab..."
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, Interesting)
The vast majority of American aid to Israel is military, and even that is generally "credits" that can only be spent at American companies
Plus, when you consider what they get by way of technology exchange, unwavering loyalty and common beliefs, it's money well spent.
When you compare that to the billions of dollars given by America to Arab states, for whom the usual return on investment is "Death to America", it's a pretty sweet deal.
Regardless, Israeli hi-tech firms make plenty of money. The parent topic was a troll, of course, but this technology, like other Israeli innovations (such as much of the computer you are probably using) are impre
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)
I do realize dog waste is an environmental hazard. (Although I'm not familiar with the landscape in Israel, so I don't know what effect not scooping has.)
I do question any government doing this.
Who is going to pay for it? Will it be taxpayers, or will it be fully funded through the use of fines?
If by fines, what happens when everyone complies? If the program is dropped, problem solved. If the program keeps going ahead, is money somehow saved compared to current situation?
Maybe I'm just a bit annoyed at how
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?
Re: (Score:2)
How many would do that? How many people feel like you do? People that hate dog shit where they can see it. How many feel strongly enough about it that when they see someone leave it on the sidewalk they wouldn't report it? You seem to have just the attitude of someone that would do that.
Re: (Score:2)
> Much A Shit About Nuthin'
Judges?
*BZZT*
I'm sorry...the answer we were looking for is "Much A-Poo About Nothing". Thanks for playing, though, and you'll receive a copy of the home game.
Re: (Score:2)
Nom nom nom... I haz a hotdog!
Re: (Score:2)
You forgot the bit about how you'd be here all night...
Re: (Score:2)
The contracting DNA labs: "Every thing coming up roses! (opens first 'specimen') What kind of cruel joke is this?!!"