As reported in The Globe and Mail, Andy Bazoian never imagined his job would include dealing with dog poop. As a property manager for a downtown Toronto condominium building, Mr. Bazoian has witnessed his fair share of anonymous, abandoned piles – in the stairwells, the mail room, the parking garage and on the grass, all left behind for everyone and anyone to step in.

“We had one incident last week, in our mail room, which is right in the front lobby,” Mr. Bazoian said.

Property managers have long struggled with tracking down irresponsible pet owners. To curb the problem, some are turning to companies that catalog dog DNA and use stinky samples to identify delinquent dog owners.

Decades ago, expensive DNA tests were reserved for criminal cases and paternity tests. Today such tests – more often used for ancestry and health testing – have become so affordable that they are being used for relatively banal concerns.

Aside from the obvious ick factor, uncollected pet waste can pose serious health risks. According to the Canadian Public Health Association, pet poop is often carried away by spring runoffs or heavy rainfalls and ends up in rivers and lakes. It then affects water quality and can lead to the transmission of diseases such as E. coli and salmonellosis. It can also be harmful to other dogs, causing infections such as Giardia, a parasite that affects the gastrointestinal tract.

One company trying to combat this problem is PooPrints. It currently provides services to more than 3,300 properties in North America and Britain and came to Ontario in October. Mr. Bazoian’s building, Infinity III, was the first in the province to use the service, but now, more than 100 other buildings are preparing to follow suit.

Keep reading in The Globe and Mail

 

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