Spanish town's elaborate plan to clear the streets of dog poo

Blood samples and a DNA poop sample will be used to track down offending dog owners.

Dog owners who don't pick up beware Source: Flickr

A small town in Spain is sick and tired of dog owners not cleaning up after the pets. The local council of Mislata just outside of Valencia, has given residents until the end of this year to take their canine friends to the vet to collect a blood sample.

It’s all part of an elaborate plan to be able to analyse dog poop left in public spaces and track it back to the offending animal and owner, according to a statement on the council’s website.

The mandatory blood samples – which will be conducted free of charge until December 31 - will be added to a registry that they can check against DNA analysis tests they conduct on abandoned faeces. The idea is to identify and charge repeat offenders, with a fine of 200 euros being applied to owners who fail to pick up after their pets.

An image on the council website says, "Never forget to pick up your pet droppings" Source: Mislata Council

Interestingly, the council of Mislata isn’t the only Spanish municipality to get tough on dog poop. In 2013, the council of Brunete, west of Madrid, launched an aggressive week-long campaign that involved mailing faeces left on the streets back to guilty owners.

A group of volunteers were asked to patrol the area and honed in on pet owners who failed to pull out a plastic bag. Undercover, they would strike up a conversation to establish the dog’s name and would later cross check that and the dog’s breed against the town’s pet database to find the owner’s address. 

Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Colmenar Viejo, a dog detective was hired last year to film offending owners in the act and refer them to the local police.