Dog’s DNA For Carrot and Stick Agsint Pooing
Reuters brings the story of Dr. Tika Bar-On, Petah Tikva’s city’s chief veterinarian who came up with the idea of using analysis of dog droppings to reward and punish pet owners. Under a six-month trial program launched this week, the city of Petah Tikva, is asking dog owners to take their animal to a municipal veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA.
The city will use the DNA database it is building to match feces to a registered dog and identify its owner. Owners who scoop up their dogs’ droppings and place them in specially marked bins on Petah Tikva’s streets will be eligible for rewards of pet food coupons and dog toys.
But droppings found underfoot in the street and matched through the DNA database to a registered pet could earn its owner a municipal fine. I find no other evidences of using DNA to implement such carrot and stick behavior model. The veterinary doctor said Petah Tikva would consider making it mandatory for pet owners to provide DNA samples from their dogs if the trial program is successful.
for the sake of full disclosure, I’d like to point that I know quite a few veterinary doctors very well (even though I do not think that I know Dr. Bar-On). I would like to see whether privacy organizations would agree to collect dog’s DNA and how this would effect the ideas to create a nation-wide DNA sample bank. In some places there are similar problems that could be solved using the same method…
The kind of dog that does not need a DNA sample