As the number of complaints about dog waste in the city has doubled over four years, a Toronto company said it might be able to track down inconsiderate owners through DNA testing.
Garry Bradamore, president of PooPrints CDN, launched the business in Toronto this week and said he was inspired to start the company after walking his dog Winston in his downtown Toronto neighbourhood where he noticed excessive dog waste.
“I don’t know any other permanent solution aside from what’s been going on over the years to help identify this,” Bradamore told Global News when asked why DNA testing is the best solution, adding he reached out to a U.S. company to learn more about the process.
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He said the system is a cheaper alternative to other methods of tracking dog owners.
“It’s a matter of time, energy and resources to allocate to simply (monitor) security cameras or allocating someone to literally sit in this park and monitor every single animal that comes into the park, which is not very cost effective.”
Bradamore is marketing the new services to property management companies.
READ MORE: Homeowners raise stink about pet waste left in black bins
He said PooPrints will do a check swab of dogs in the building, send them to the DNA World Pet Registry and when dog waste is found, it is sent to a lab and compared against the registered samples.
Bradamore said almost 2000 buildings south of the border use the process and he hopes to expand the service in Canada.
But just how big of a problem is leftover dog waste in the city?
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According to Toronto Animal Services, the City of Toronto received 998 feces complaints in 2015 compared to 478 calls in 2011.
Animal services staff investigate all complaints received.
If staff are able to catch someone, they will most likely educate the dog owner if it’s a first-time offence. But for repeat offenders, they can be fined $240 or ultimately summoned to court if the case is extreme.
Leslie Whyte contributed to this report