City Officials In Boulder Consider DNA Dog Waste Ordinance
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Elected officials in the city of Boulder are considering a plan to test dog poop for DNA so the dog owners can be tracked down.
The Boulder City Council on Tuesday Monday night held public hearings on several ordinances regarding dogs and open spaces. One plan being floated by Councilwoman Mary Young includes creating a dog waste DNA database to curb the problem of dog owners not picking up after their pets. Boulder gets numerous complaints about dog waste along trails.
The program is already in effect in more than a dozen apartment communities and HOAs in Denver. Residents there say the program works, and has dropped the number of dog waste incidents to near zero.
Some Boulder residents CBS4 interviewed on Tuesday about the plan were in favor of such a proposal while others weren't.
"I think it's excessive," said Janet Yankowitz.
Some people at Tuesday night's meeting were skeptical about the costs of such a program, but City Council officials said dog waste in open space areas is a real issue.
Sam Johnson, president of Pet Scoop in Denver, is already distributing a program called Pooprints that he says works.
"It was designed because of the issues of irresponsible pet owners not being accountable for picking up their dog waste," said Johnson last month.
He says the process is easy: collect a swab of DNA from inside the dog's mouth, then send to a lab where its stored in a database.
"They can basically match that waste sample to all of the dogs that are registered in the database for that particular community," said Johnson.
