Yeah, I thought you probably did. I mean, I think most people are pretty well aware that leaving lots of poop lying around isn’t the key to good health, for dogs or humans.
However, I recently read an article seeking to make sure that we are all very aware of this point. It does have some details that I wasn’t specifically aware of, such as which diseases our dogs are most likely to get if you leave old dog poop lying around in the yard, so it isn’t completely silly.
The article also mentions a few more things I didn’t know, like the fact that there are apparently a number of people willing to let their dogs do their business in their own yards, but who still don’t want to clean it up themselves. One of the owners mentioned actually just sort of let the poop pile up (ew!), and his dog kept getting sick with the same disease over and over because of it (argh). This apparently still wasn’t enough to make him willing to pick it up himself, though, so he pays a service to come and pick up all the dog poop in his yard once a week. (The article does point out that really, these people should not be letting it sit around for even that long.)
This is just so utterly alien to me as an idea. I live in the city, so most non-dog-poop-picker-uppers are actually leaving the dog poop either the park or in someone else’s yard. And while having a dog walker come daily is a pretty common thing for some people, I’ve never really heard of anyone just letting their dog go in the yard every day for a week and then having someone else come in and pick it up. It’s just… odd, to me.
Anyway, I found it amusing how the article takes this tone like people who leave dog poop around are simply unaware of how disease-ridden it is and merely need to be informed in order to stop doing it. That’s way more generous than I would be. It did mention a pretty good strategy that one woman uses when she sees someone else with their dog about to leave the poop behind:
“When I see someone not picking up after their dogs, I will walk up to them and say, ‘Oh, did you forget a bag to pick up after your dog? That happens to me too. Here, have one of mine.’ So far, has worked every time.”
I can totally see this strategy working, because for the person to refuse they pretty much have to actively declare themselves to be one of those people who leave dog poop lying around, which most people aren’t going to do.
Now, this may work if you actually catch the person in the act. But what you do about people who leave dog poop behind before you can catch them? How can you figure out which people aren’t picking up after their dogs?
Why, DNA testing, of course!
Yeah, that’s not a joke. Apparently, some landlords are actually requiring all dog owning tenants to give a DNA sample from the dog when they move in. Then, if they find dog poop in the yard, they can have it tested against the samples in order to determine who left the dog poop behind. This allows the landlord to confront said tenants with evidence, and to threaten fines if they’re caught a second or third time.
According to the article, it’s been incredibly effective for landlords who have decided use it.
Now, I can totally see why this would work. Not necessarily because of the fines, but actually, just because of the confrontation. Like the earlier example showed, people are much less willing to leave dog poop behind if they know someone is actually watching. It’s the same kind of peer pressure move that the woman offering the bags was using.
While it sounds kind of like the sort of thing you’d hear about on CSI (“We’ve matched the dog poop to his dog, so he’s definitely the killer!”) I could actually see this sort of thing catching on. And I think it’s kind of a good thing, because it allows for landlords to be more comfortable having tenants with dogs. It kind of sucks when there’s only one tenant making the messes, but all tenants with dogs end up taking the blame simply because there’s no proof of who’s responsible.
