Roosevelt Island Residents Sick And Tired Of Horrendous Amount Of Dog Excrement All Over The Island, RIOC PSD Chief Says We're Going To Do Better Job In Policing Dog Poop - Can DNA Testing Help Solve Roosevelt Island Dog Poop Mess?

Like many Roosevelt Island residents, Bojana Zezelj is sick and tired of seeing dog excrement not being picked up all over Roosevelt Island. Ms Zezelj writes:

Does anyone have any ideas what to do about the horrendous amount of dog excrement all over the island? I am asking as a responsible dog owner who always picks up after her dog. But exactly because I do, I notice how many dog owners don’t bother. They leave it even in the middle of the sidewalk. I asked Public Safety more than once what they were doing about it, but they looked at me like I spoke Esperanto. They couldn’t care less. Not a single ticket has ever been issued on Roosevelt Island for the failure to clean up after a dog. The situation is getting out of control, we need to do something.

According to Lana, another responsible Roosevelt Island Dog Owner:

As a dog owner here, the amount of dog poop left on the sidewalks is mind boggling. It is a very simple thing to do and the community even provides bags and receptacles for everyone to use. This is such a lovely community and as dog owners, it is our responsibility to clean up after our dogs.

I’m super heated about this :) there is more poop here than there was on the Upper East Side after snow. And that’s saying a lot.

Another resident reported dog poop on Firefighters Field where kids play soccer and says:

... come on people, this is out of control.

During the March 16 Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Public Safety Committee Meeting (full video here), Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Chief Kevin Brown said:

We're going to do a better job in policing ... dog poop ... it's illegal to to have these dogs uncurbed, ... if people don't pick up after their pets ... they're going to get summonses and that's the way it has to be because ... it's not a sanitary habit to just let your dog poop all over Roosevelt Island ... The word has been given from the top that anyone who is caught, it has to be something that's witnessed by an officer, they're going to get summonses  

... it's something that that we are going to enforce...

  

Ms Zezelj adds: 

I actually do have an idea. I would like to go around the island with a big bucket, take a photo of every pile of dog shit I see lying around, then put that dog shit in the bucket and once the bucket it full, deliver it to the RIOC office. If anyone is interested in filming me in action, let me know.

RIOC PSD has made previous promises to enforce dog owners cleaning up their dog's poop but the problem persists. 

Former RIOC Public Safety Chief Jack McManus discussed the problem of dog poop and off leash dogs during this 2016 Roosevelt Island Residents Association Public Safety Committee meeting.

In 2013, Roosevelt Islander Online published an article about building management companies requiring dog owners to provide DNA samples for their dogs. That way a dog owner not cleaning up the poop could be identified and sanctioned in some manner. I suggested this to RIOC and of course they did nothing. Perhaps now is the time to try again and either RIOC PSD or individual building management could require Dog DNA samples in order to identify and issue summons or some other penalty for offending dog owners. 

Here's how a St Louis apartment complex currently uses dog poop DNA to enforce owners cleaning up after their pets.

Can Dog Poop DNA work to clean up Roosevelt Island?

Can DNA Testing Solve Roosevelt Island's Dog Poop Mess? PooPrints To The Rescue

Reported previously that Roosevelt Island is a great place to test new and exciting technology for the betterment of those who live, work and visit here. Projects that succeed on Roosevelt Island can then be expanded to other locations.

Here's another opportunity to test a technology solution to a common problem on Roosevelt Island and everywhere else. Could DNA Testing technology

Image From PooPrints

be the solution for the Dog Poop problem?

According to the Huffington Post:

The only thing worse than stepping in dog poop is knowing there's pretty much no way to track down the guilty pet owner.

That's where PooPrints comes in. The service, created by BioPet Vet Lab in Tennessee, can be purchased by entire housing complexes or housing developments that are willing to make pet DNA swabbing a requirement for residents. That way, if anyone ever comes across a pile of abandoned feces on the street, PooPrints can take a sample, send it to a lab and instantly know which dog, and consequently which owner, is the culprit....

Click here for the entire article.

ABC 7 News reports:



Responding in 2010 to residents complaints about some dog owners not picking up their dog's poop, former Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Department (PSD) Director Keith Guerra stated:

... The Public Safety Department has received calls regarding dog owners not picking up after their dogs. Unfortunately, by the time we respond to the location, the person is usually gone. However, if someone is seen by a Public Safety Officer not picking up after their dog, they can be ticketed.

Dogs are also not permitted to run loose in non-designated areas. "Curb your Dog" signs refer to just that. Dogs must be kept on a leash.

"No Dogs Allowed" signs are authorized to be placed on private property. If a person disobeys any of the posted signs, they fall subject to being ticketed as well.

Please note that Public Safety Officers can use discretion and choose to issue a verbal warning in lieu of a ticket.

Residents need to use good judgement in these areas, as they do affect the Quality of Life here on the island. Encourage your readers to be good neighbors by keeping their dogs on a leash and picking up after them as well....

So, what do you think? Should Roosevelt Island dogs be required to have their DNA on file with PSD or their building management so that poop not picked up can be tested to identify and ticket the dog owner?