Walking out of your luxurious downtown apartment to a courtyard riddled with dog-laid landmines and the stink of — for lack of a better term — poop isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite thing in the world.
To combat the rise of doggie dropping being left on the ground at apartment complexes, despite readily available clean-up bags and trash cans, property managers are starting to use a new high-tech trick: DNA testing.
The Residences at Fountainhead is one of the first properties in Arizona to utilize this trick by collecting a DNA sample of every pet resident. When the complex finds a pile of abandoned doggie droppings, they collect a sample and send it for testing.
If the DNA from the dropping matches up with a resident culprit, the owner of the offending pet receives a $250 fine. The cost of the test is $75.
Bryan Fasulo, regional property manager for Pinnacle Property Management, the firm overseeing The Residences at Fountainhead, says tenants loved the idea about testing Exhibit No. 1 to get to the bottom of who left behind No. 2.
With DNA testing, people cannot deny that their pet was the party pooper.
“We’re able to pretty much 100 percent go back, and say, ‘Hey, Joe, this was you,’ and give them a chance to correct the situation,” Fasulo explains. “And if they continue doing it, we fine them for doing it. Unfortunately, that’s the only way people learn.”
The property managers decided to utilize DNA testing at the Residences because it’s located within a corporate park and is considered high-density. There isn’t much room around the outside of the 322-unit complex and they don’t want the open space riddled with dog waste, Fasulo says.
“(Left-behind dog waste) is actually one of the biggest problems we face on properties as a whole,” Fasulo says.
Folks are spending so much on downtown properties with nice amenities and a tight-knit community, he says, they don’t want to have to dodge dog poop as they walk out their front doors.
