Following dog owners who fail to pick up their Pitou’s droppings on the street, a city in France has decided to introduce a ‘genetic passport’ to trace the origin of the droppings and issue fines accordingly.
“I can’t take all this crap anymore […] We have to punish so that people behave well,” Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers in southern France, lamented to French media France Bleu Hérault on Sunday.
From the next few months, dogs in the French city will have to undergo a saliva sample from a veterinarian in order to be entered into a database as part of an experiment that will last until July 2025.
Thanks to this genetic baggage, the city will be able to track down the owner of a dog who does not ingest his companion’s feces by analyzing the sample found, according to French media. The latter then receives a fine of 122 euros for cleaning, the equivalent of about 180 Canadian dollars.
At the same time, owners who do not have their pet’s genetic passport will be fined 38 euros (around 56 US dollars) at each inspection.
“We counted. We collect more than a thousand every month. Sometimes a lot more, just downtown. It’s no longer possible for things to stay that way,” the mayor continued.
In Valencia, Spain, a similar initiative would have reduced dog feces on the street by 90%.
According to France Bleu Hérault, other cities facing the same problem have already indicated that they will keep the process under review to follow suit if the initiative is coherent.