Apartment Community Institutes Mandatory Pet DNA Sampling to Combat Dog Poo

MCKINNEY TX – The Avana Eldorado apartment community is taking the war on poo to the next level and have instituted some questionable practices in doing so. In a recent letter to all residents, management explains that per their rental agreements, they have the authority to “amend the rules from time to time,” therefore, will be implementing a mandatory DNA sampling for all pets inhabiting their property.

The idea behind the “P.E.T. CSI” program is to collect DNA samples of all the dogs on the property to establish a baseline database which can be later referenced to identify residents who don’t scoop their dogs poop. Once the registry is complete any feces found on the property will be checked for DNA and the offending pet owner will be fined $500. If the owner doesn’t pay up, their rental agreement will be terminated! If a resident does not submit their dog to the DNA collection program, they are subject to a $250 fine and rental agreement termination. Residents have until February 28th to get their pets swabbed or else they are subject to the penalties for which they never agreed to. To make matters worse, residents who work during normal business hours would most likely need to take time off in order to attend the available appointment options (M-F 9-6pm.)

PET CSI, the Dallas based company who is contracted by the apartment community to process the DNA results is touting the potential profits of their program as a selling point…

P.E.T. CSI™is a profit-center for properties and their management firms. Property managers have used the revenue created by P.E.T. CSI™to fund new on-site amenities.

It appears that if apartment communities can impose this program on their residents they stand to profit and reduce the amount of unwarranted poo-piles being left on their property at the same time.

According to the company’s website, they claim to be a “state and federal court approved pet DNA analysis firm”. While their lab may be accredited, their customer’s enforcement tactics have yet to been challenged in court. I am certainly no lawyer, but it seems residents may have an avenue to challenge the forced DNA collection techniques and associated penalties under current privacy, property, or contract laws. This especially holds true for existing residents who signed their agreements prior to the DNA program being instituted.

I certainly don’t approve of dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets. Leaving unwarranted turds on someone else’s lawn could arguably be categorized as a property rights violation. However, forcing residents to submit their property (pets) to a registry could arguably violate ones right to privacy. Maybe living in a poop-free environment outweighs the risks of having your pets (and personal) information at the fingertips of a DNA lab. But, the ultimate decision rests with the consumer. The market will eventually determine if these business practices are providing the consumer with a worthwhile service, assuming our lawmaker friends don’t get involved.

Watch the promo video of the PET CSI : Update (2/3/2015) – PET CSI has removed their promo video from their website. No details as to why the video has been removed.



Here is another video about the company

