DNA tests launched in Italy to trace dogs that poo in street

Owners tracked down through genetic database to face fines of up to £430

An Italian province is set to track down dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets – by using DNA testing on the mess.

A dog DNA registration database will be set up so that street cleaners and health officials in Bolzano can collect poop to be sent for genetic testing.

Owners of dogs traced from the DNA will face fines of 50 to 500 euros (£43 to £430).

Any owner who refuses DNA profiling for their dog will face fines of up to 1,048 euros.

The provincial government covering Bolzano city and surrounding towns in the picturesque Dolomites region is creating the database for the almost 40,000 dogs in the area, veterinary department director Paolo Zambotto said. About 10,000 have already been registered.

“Bolzano receives a few hundred complaints a year from citizens about improper management of public land. More than half are for dogs,” he said.

“Law enforcement could only catch three or four of them because they have to go there and set up some kind of stakeout.”

Mr Zambotto said other Italian cities had been in touch to potentially replicate the law.

Trials of similar schemes have been carried out in some parts of London, the Spanish city of Tarragona, Seattle, USA, and Tel Aviv in Israel.

Barking and Dagenham council, the first UK authority to use the new technology, reported a 50 per cent drop in dog faeces left in parks.

Last year, a trial scheme in the southern French town of Béziers required dog owners to carry their pet’s “genetic passport” to tackle the problem.

In Bolzano, a mountainous German-speaking province near Austria, tourists and non-residents will exempted from the regulation.

DNA registration will become compulsory from around late March. Owners will be expected to have blood tests for their dogs, in municipal dog shelters or vet clinics, costing up to 100 euros or more.

Mr Zambotto did not give an estimated cost for the project, but the fines are expected to cover detection and administration expenses.