Dog problems

But hopefully in a few years that'll change.

Whenever police find poop, they'll run DNA tests on it to find out which dog it came from.

I'd be pretty annoyed about this too if I were a dog owner.

Montreal's a pretty dog-friendly city. Most neighborhoods have at least one dog park, and there are a lot of pet shops and vets here. I think there's even a dog eye clinic near my place. It's nice having a dog here; most of the neighborhoods are great to walk around in, so taking your dog out is a pleasant experience. When my daughter was a toddler, she always wanted to go to the dog park and watch the dogs. She got knocked over a few times though, and now she doesn't like them as much. But I'd like to get a dog some day; right now, I don't think we're able to take care of one, since we don't have a yard and we don't really have the time to walk a dog three times a day. But hopefully in a few years that'll change. 

Yeah, it's really dog-friendly here. With so many dogs, there are some  problems with people leaving poop on the sidewalk. It's illegal to not clean up after your dog, but some people never do. It's very annoying; apparently it used to be such a problem that the city had a canine patrol, which was some people whose job was to catch dog owners breaking the rules. 

Not cleaning up after your dog is a problem in a lot of cities, apparently. I read about a really interesting solution that one province in Italy has come up with recently: DNA testing. So, this is in the Italian province of Bolzano, where there are a lot of complaints about dog poop in the streets. 

Whenever police find poop, they'll run DNA tests on it to find out which dog it came from. For this to work, all dog owners are required to let police sample their dog's DNA so they can add it to their database. The plan is controversial; dog owners are required to pay 65 euros for the DNA collection process; if they don't comply, they could be fined up to 1000 euros. The poor dogs, they have to give blood for the test. I'd be pretty annoyed about this too if I were a dog owner. Also, the plan won't work for stray dogs, and tourists who bring their dogs from other places are not required to register their dogs' DNA. Of the 40,000 dogs in the area, only 10,000 have provided DNA samples so far. The deadline to register is March.

It's a pretty unique approach to this problem. But if this strategy is successful and makes the streets in Bolzano cleaner, will other places follow their example? I guess we'll know in about a year.

Listening Homework |
by Homework Cat

Listening Homework
by Homework Cat

Warmup

How are they trying to solve the problem in Italy?