It’s morning and you’re walking your dog, with a bag in hand, on the lawn outside of your apartment so that Fido can do his business. As you walk, you hear that dreaded squish beneath your Crocs. Your neighbors didn’t pick up after their dog — again — and you haven’t even had your morning coffee.
The bad-acting dog owner not only ruined your morning, but that of your landlord’s, too. Littered lawns are bad form, and bad for business. But in 2019, apartment owners have a high-tech tool in their toolbox to make sure everyone is following the rules. It involves some pet detectives and technicians in lab coats.
Apartment complexes used to be notorious for their stiff, anti-pet rules. Once the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1991, landlords had to accept tenants with service animals like seeing eye dogs. The definition of service animals has broadened to include emotional support animals.
This trend picked up about 20 years ago, Drew Hamrick, senior vice president of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, said.
“It’s a competitive landscape and people can’t be so cavalier about pets,” Hamrick said. “If someone has a disability, they need a service animal. And at that point, you might as well open the doors for any pet.”
This policy shift resulted in more green lawns peppered with dog poop, though. That inspired complexes to tear a page from the CSI handbook — DNA testing.
Many apartment complexes across the metro area require residents to submit DNA samples of their dogs before moving in. They then contract out collection and testing services that will show who the offending parties are if animal waste is found on the property.
In 2008, entrepreneur Tom Boyd bought the BioPet research lab in Knoxville, Tenn., and, upon learning that research labs don’t make money, he founded PooPrints as the lab’s side hustle to bring in some extra revenue.
“I first heard about PooPrints 10 years ago,” Chief Executive Officer J Retinger said. “I thought, ‘Wow, there’s some brilliance to that. But will people get on board?’ ”
The company came of age in the thick of the recession. The multi-family residential industry wasn’t hit as hard by the economic downturn and benefited from people having to rent versus owning homes, Retinger said. That, and an unaffected pet industry, created a favorable business environment for PooPrints.
The company has partners in every state and seven countries: Canada, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia and Mexico, said Retinger, who became CEO in 2017.
Pet Scoop, founded in 1994 by Sam and Lanier Johnson, has been PooPrints’ Colorado partner since 2011.
“I first heard about them 10 years ago. I didn’t take it seriously until I started reading articles about them a few months later,” Sam Johnson said. “Pet Scoop’s biggest issue is that waste builds up once we leave. By fining residents, we’re taking a more proactive approach.”
People swab their dog’s cheek when moving into a PooPrint-affiliated residence. That DNA sample is entered into the national pet registry. So if a pup poops on a lawn and the owner leaves it there, maintenance crews will take a sample, which will be sent to the lab in Knoxville.
Then, the sample is run through the DNA database until a match is found. The result is sent to the landlord who can dish out a fine to the guilty dog owner.
The service is effective, too, said Greg Tyndall, manager at PetScoop partner Decatur Point Apartments in Denver. Residents face a three-strike rule with fines. After the third instance of not picking up after their dog, they could face eviction. That’s a hypothetical contingency, though, because most offenders are “pretty one-and-done,” Tyndall said.
And it’s not just privately held apartment complexes that require pet DNA samples. In 2018, Winter Park added the right to test dogs in its public housing leases, though it hasn’t been enforced, a spokesperson said.
In Breckenridge, a public housing lease requires residents to provide a sample of dog fur, Nichole Rex, a housing planner for Breckenridge, said. The town partnered with PooPrints.
“Our decision to pursue dog DNA testing was around ensuring our property was being up-kept and maintained. And making sure our guests weren’t exposed to, well, dog poop every where,” Rex said. “It has worked. No one wants to be fined $100 over dog poop.”
Besides PooPrints, there are a handful of other companies doing the same kind of work — five or six by Retinger’s estimation.
Not picking up dog poop might seem innocuous, but when waste is left behind, it can harm the environment.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, animal waste that decomposes in bodies of water releases nutrients and pathogens that causes excessive weed and algae growth. Excessive growth turns water green and makes water dangerous to swim in or fish in.
“You might be a responsible person but if no one else picks up, you’re going to think, ‘Why should I bother?” That snowball effect is dangerous,” Sam Johnson said. “Denver is a dog friendly city and dog waste is a negative from that.“
