ohmidog!

A company we’ve told you about before, called PooPrints, made its case before the Dallas City Council this week, promising it could solve one of life’s great and ongoing mysteries — and it’s not who shot J.R.

It’s “Whose poop is this?” and, as company officials pointed out, tracking down and fining the owners of dogs who didn’t clean up could bring in millions in revenue for the city.

(Not to mention millions in revenue for the company.)

At least one Dallas City Council member expressed more than a passing interest in the company’s proposal to establish a citywide doggie DNA registry that would allow unscooped piles of poop to be traced to their source.

The company is already working with apartment and condo complexes around the country, but now it seems to have its sights set on signing up entire cities.

We, in case you can’t tell, hate this idea (and we pick up).

NBC5 in Dallas reports that, while some Dallas City Council members chuckled Wednesday when they heard about the idea, others thought it had merit.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Councilwoman Angela Hunt said. “I think we do need enforcement, especially in some of our denser areas where you have a lot of folks living with dogs and, if they’re not picking up. It creates a problem.”

PooPrints said cracking down, through DNA testing, could help clean up the environment.  “This waste does run off into the Trinity River, and it does affect our ecosystem,” spokesman Chris Taylor said. “And we do want to keep our parks clean. We want to keep them healthy. This is a very easy way to do it.”

Company officials say residents could be required to pay for the $29.95  kits required to get a DNA sample. The city — while it would pay for the tests on the poop itself – $49.95 each — would more than recoup that expense through fining perpetrators.

The Ilume apartment complex on Cedar Springs Road in Dallas is already using the program on its property. Residents are required to record their pet’s DNA, and they’re fined $250 if waste on the property is tracked to that pet. A second offense leads to eviction.

“We’ve gone from picking up maybe an hour a day of poop, to picking up maybe one or two a month,” manager Joshuah Welch said.

The woman who oversaw the revamping of dog law in Pennsylvania — helping the state shed its image as the puppy mill capital of the East – has been replaced as the state’s top dog law enforcement officer.

With a banker.

Jessie Smith, who was appointed by former Gov. Ed Rendell in 2006 to rewrite regulations for commercial breeding operations, is out.

Lynn Diehl, a former banker, is in. She’ll serve as director of the newly created Dog Law Enforcement Office.

Jessie Smith

Smith, a 20-year veteran of the state attorney general’s office when she was named special deputy secretary for dog law enforcement, oversaw dramatic changes in the way commercial breeding kennels are regulated in Pennsylvania, and helped put scores of substandard operations out of business.

The appointment of Diehl, with a relative lack of dog credentials, alarmed some, who fear the progressive steps underway in Pennsylvania could take a back seat to collecting revenue.

A spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett, who is awaiting the delivery of two Airedale terriers as family pets, said the state remains commited to dogs. (New appointee Diehl has a dachshund.)

Smith was reassigned to the governor’s office of general counsel, where she will work with the Agriculture Department.

“Obviously, getting the kennels in compliance is a top priority, but there are a lot of other areas in dog law and in general with dogs in Pennsylvania that may have been put on a side burner and really need some attention too,” Mike Pechart, executive deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture, is quoted as saying in an Associated Press article.

One of the areas needing attention, he pointed out, is the state’s Dog Law Restricted Account, which is funded mainly by dog license fees and pays for enforcement. The account is running out of money because too few dog owners comply with state licensing requirement.

Pechart said Diehl’s financial background “will be critical for the bureau.” Read more »

By taking steps to register the estimated two-thirds of dogs in Los Angeles who aren’t licensed, the city stands to gain $3.6 million.

So, being in dire of of revenue, that’s exactly what it’s doing, the Los Angeles Times reports.

About 120,000 dogs are licensed in the city, as required by law; it’s estimated that there are twice that many whose owners are not following the rules.

The task of locating unlicensed dogs falls to eight full-time canvassers for the Department of Animal Services, who roam the city looking for canines with no licenses or expired licenses and handing out information on spaying and neutering.

But they’ll soon be getting some help. On Tuesday, the council unanimously approved a motion to have the Department of Animal Services coordinate with the Department of Water and Power, which keeps a  database from its meter readers of residences with dogs.