(Web Desk) - After the streets of an Italian province became overrun with dog poop, local dog owners will soon be required to submit their pet’s DNA to a government database so that police can identify and reprimand the culprits.
Officials in the province that covers Bolzano, north of Milan at the foot of the Dolomite mountains, plan to use the dog DNA database so that any abandoned poop collected by health officials and street cleaners can be genetically tested.
The hope is that the tests will allow them to find and fine the dog’s owners, or act as a deterrent to future lawbreakers.
Dog owners who do not pick up after their pets will face fines of €50 to €500, or $54 to $540, as reported by Reuters.
It costs €65 ($70) to submit the DNA test, but those who refuse to do so face fines of €292 to €1,048 ($317 to $1,138).
The law requiring the testing was passed in 2023. Veterinary department director Paolo Zambotto told Reuters that just 10,000 of the province's estimated 40,000 dog owners have complied.
The Guardian reported that the DNA profiling had originally been due to start by the end of last year.
"Bolzano receives a few hundred complaints a year from citizens about improper management of public land.
More than half are for dogs," Zambotto told Reuters. "Law enforcement could only catch three or four of them because they have to go there and set up some kind of stakeout."
Arnold Schuler, a provincial councilor, told the state broadcaster Rai that in addition to catching the culprits, the new database could also help identify dogs killed in road accidents or that attacked people or other animals.
The new rule has garnered some backlash from local dog owners that do pick up after their pets, while others argue that the measure is too complex and unenforceable, as the poop may be the result of strays or tourists’ pets.
“It is easier said than done,” Madeleine Rohrer, from the local Greens party, told the newspaper Il Giornale.
“It will only be an additional expense for the municipality and for the police, who have many other things to do.”
The DNA testing is now expected to go into effect at the end of March.