Identifying irresponsible dog owners by DNA testing dog droppings

Every fall, we had to confront it. People would let their dogs run around on the field in the morning and by the time soccer practice started, the field would be full of deadly doo.

There's nothing that hurts soccer practice more than a soccer ball or shoes that went through a pile of dog poo.

That's why I'm so exciting to see this new application for DNA testing. That's right. Kids will be able to play soccer without worry and dog owners will be held responsible for cleaning up after their pets.

The forward thinking city that's going to implement this plan is Petah Tikva, in Isreal. They are going to make a DNA database containing information from every dog in town.

When those dogs defile the wrong bit of ground, someone can bring the sample to the vet, and the vet will compare DNA sequences in the poop with the sequences from the dog.

This really attests to the cost of DNA sequencing or SNP detection dropping and it's a really creative use of the technology.

from Reuters.