Italy may have embarrassing leaders, a tanking economy, and simmering social unrest, but it still has its dignity. Naples has had it up to here with canine irresponsibility, and the city is getting dead serious about dog doo. How dead serious? DNA testing for dog sh*t dead serious.
New plans to clean the city include giving every dog in the city a blood test to create a DNA database of dogs and owners. Then, it’s as simple as spotting rogue feces, testing a sample, finding the database match (ding ding ding!), and blasting the owner with a fine up to 500 euros (that’s a whopping $685)!
Preliminary efforts appear effective—Naples’ police captain claims dog poop is “greatly diminished.” Apparently other communities are taking note: municipalities in more than 40 U.S. states, as well as Canada and Israel are looking into the initiative. One wonders how cost-effective this strategy is, but maybe you can’t put a price on excrement-free streets. So feckless dog owners beware: your days of carefree dump-and-ditch walks may be numbered. (commons.wikimedia.org)
