A DNA Dog Fight

Want to track the neighborhood dogs depositing potentially pathogen-laden poop in public places? Two or three scrappy firms will do it with DNA profiling. The big dog in the market seems to be BioPet Vet Lab of Knoxville, Tennessee, with its PooPrints service. It claims to have "eliminated the dog waste problem in 3,000 properties across the U.S." thanks to its "patented DNA World Pet Registry database." [1]

BioPet sued a Dallas, Texas, competitor who had been a local distributor for PooPrints and then established his own brand.  The new company, PoopCSI, boasted that "We are the only firm used by Federal Prosecutors to link Pet DNA from dog feces to convict a man in the home-invasion and rap [sic] of a woman in Texas. The Canine CODIS database in which [sic] we invented is the first multi-agency forensic DNA database of dogs." [2]

Actually, the "Canine CODIS" is not a Dallas creation, but a joint effort involving the more reputable Veterinary Genetics Laboratory of the University of California at Davis to cope with the serious business of dog fighting competitions. [3] VGL Forensics also does DNA testing for law enforcement agencies in cases of animal attacks and when animal DNA "from hair, saliva, blood, urine, or feces [occurs] during the commission of a crime—from the victim's pet to the suspect or crime scene, and from the suspect's pet to the victim or crime scene." [4]

PoopCSI is now called PET CSI. It accuses PooPrints ("dog poop franchise competitors") of "spread[ing] false rumors and produc[ing] fake press releases," having a "fraudulent business model," using "deceptive trade practices," and "theft of pet DNA intellectual property." [5] PET CSI has the worst possible rating (F) from the Better Business Bureau.

There is some irony in PET CSI's stream-of-consciousness complaint that "They are now attempting to lay claim they invented the DNA pet waste matching service when our lab has been doing this it since 1955 and even on their own website they mention they only got started 2008 and only location as early as last year got started." [5] Neither PET CSI nor DNA profiling methods existed in 1955 -- a scant two years after Watson and Crick elucidated the structure of DNA. Human forensic DNA profiling did not begin until at least 30 years later. [6] 1955 might have been the year that the UC-Davis veterinary lab -- which must be "our lab," as indicated by PET CSI's unacknowledged copying of material from VGL's website -- started, under the name of "the Serology Laboratory, ... established ... for the purpose of verifying parentage for cattle registries" using blood typing. [7]

Also nipping at PooPrints' heels is Mr Dog Poop's CRIME LAB. [8] This Tampa, Florida, upstart contrasts its computer database technology as "star trek" compared to PooPrints' "stone-age" methods. Not only does it offer "Dog poop DNA testing [for] $35/dog," but it conducts "Poop And Run DNA Investigations [for] Only $50/incident." After all, "If the FBI can use DNA technology to enforce the law, why can't HOAs, COAs and Property managers?" [9]

This development dismayed one Washington Post writer, who lamented

Yes, it has come to this: We live in a society where, rather than speaking to one another and gingerly asking neighbors to clean up their dogs’ messes, we mail a portion of said messes to Tennessee in a small bottle so that, using genetic sequencing and mathematical logarithms [sic], the canine hooligan can be identified. [10]

Notes

1. The DNA Solution for Pet Waste Management, https://www.pooprints.com/. For varying comments from property managers, see Rick Montgomery, Growing Pet DNA Industry Identifies Poop Offenders, Kansas City Star, May 1, 2014, http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article348234/Growing-pet-DNA-industry-identifies-poop-offenders.html; PooPrints is [sic] Fabricated its Pet Waste Business Nationwide, Ripoff Report, Apr. 30, 2015, https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/pooprints/nationwide/pooprints-is-fabricated-its-pet-waste-business-nationwide-1225902.
2. Eric Nicholson,Two Companies, PooPrints and PoopCSI, Are Battling for the Right to DNA Test Dallas' Dog Crap, Dallas Observer, Aug. 20, 2013, http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/two-companies-pooprints-and-poopcsi-are-battling-for-the-right-to-dna-test-dallas-dog-crap-7102482.
3. University of California at Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, Canine CODIS: Using a CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) to Fight Dog Fighting, https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/forensics/CANINECODIS.php.
4. University of California at Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, VGL Forensics, 2018, https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/forensics/index.php.
5. PET CSI® Difference, 2018, http://www.petcsi.com/pet-csi-difference.
6. David H. Kaye, The Double Helix and the Law of Evidence (2010).
7. University of California at Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, About the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, 2018, https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/vgl/about.php.
8. Compare DNA Dog Poop Services, http://mrdogpoop.com/splash/compare.html.
9. What Is Mr Dog Poop's® CRIME LAB® Dog Poop DNA Service?, http://mrdogpoop.com.
10. Karen Heller, Using DNA to Catch Canine Culprits — and Their Owners, Wash. Post, Dec. 26, 2014, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/using-dna-to-catch-canine-culprits--and-their-owners/2014/12/26/8d833fc8-8247-11e4-8882-03cf08410beb_story.html?utm_term=.7c49e9dc734a.

Related Postings

• Canine DNA Databases to the Rescue, Apr. 17, 2011
• Adopted Family Members Placed Under Genetic Surveillance, July 3, 2011
• A Probability for Dog DNA, Jan. 14, 2015

Related News Stories

• Debra Cassens Weiss, Lawyer Says Condo’s Proposed PooPrints DNA Program Is ‘Absolutely Ridiculous,' ABAJ, May 20, 2010, http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyer_says_condos_suggested_pooprints_dna_program_is_absolutely_ridiculous/
• Stanley Coren, CSI Meets Dog Poop, Psychology Today,  June 30, 2011, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201106/csi-meets-dog-poop.
• Danny Lewis, Dog Owners Beware, DNA in Dog Poop Could Be Used to Track You Down, Smithsonian Mag., Mar. 30, 2016, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dog-owners-beware-dna-dog-poop-could-used-track-you-down-180958596/
• Maria Arcega-Dunn, City Uses DNA to Track Dog Owners Who Don’t Pick Up, Fox 5 (San Diego), Apr. 29, 2015, http://fox5sandiego.com/2015/04/29/san-diego-turns-to-dna-to-trace-dog-owners-who-dont-pick-up/
• 7NEWS, Colorado Dog Owners Fined Hundreds After Not Picking Up Pet Poop, Denver Post, Nov. 10, 2015, https://www.denverpost.com/2015/11/10/colorado-dog-owners-fined-hundreds-after-not-picking-up-pet-poop/
• Eli Pace, Breckenridge Weighs DNA Testing Dog Poop After Complaints Pile Up, Summit Daily, Mar. 5, 2018, https://www.summitdaily.com/news/breckenridge-weighs-dna-testing-dog-poop-after-complaints-pile-up/