Emily Duprie
A new apartment tenant and dog owner went viral on TikTok for sharing her concerns and confusion about a newly emerged DNA-testing “PooPrint” dog policy. Poster Maddie (xmaddieadele) claimed she was reading over her new lease and noticed a request to bring her dog into the office to be “swabbed”.
The “PooPrint” poolicy is a new method of monitoring apartments and communities are using to identify whose dog is getting away with leaving its business behind. Apparently, the complex obtains the leftover dog poop, mails it off to be DNA-tested, and then fines or warns whoever owns the matching dog.
A few questions have arisen from this new process. Who is being forced to pick up random people’s dog poop and mail it off? Second, is that sanitary? Lastly, is it really that serious? With the wonderful invention of security cameras and the opportunity to file who has what dog, this problem shouldn’t be as intense as it is. However, according to the PooPrints website, over 7,000+ communities are utilizing this service.
“Tell me your PooPrint stories now,” wrote Maddie in the caption of her video. TikTokers responded with thoughts on the dog poo DNA-testing phenomenon.
In her video, Maddie began “I just got the lease for a new apartment and I was reading the part about pets. And the leasing person said that I need to bring my dog by the office whenever we move in so that she can get registered for a PooPrints account.” Confused and baffled, she continued “And clearly I Googled that because ‘What is that? And you gave me no context.’ What is a PooPrints account?”
After a quick inquiry, Maddie came to the terrifying realization that if left behind, her dog’s feces would be shipped off to some unfortunate scientist in a lab somewhere. Despite the weirdness of it all, Maddie’s main concern was what the consequences would be.
She questioned, “I don’t know if they’re gonna fine us, I don’t know if they’re gonna get a disease because they’re sending dog shit through the mail. I don’t know if they’re gonna come get my dog.… Can somebody tell me what’s going to happen?”
The TikTok audience who saw the clip came to the rescue. The general consensus is that the threat of DNA testing your dog’s feces is simply a scare tactic.
Rest easy, dog owners. According to the comments, very few complexes and communities actually follow through with the mailing and lab testing. It seems that no one is getting paid enough to go around being the Nancy Drew of dog droppings. Still, it’s always good to clean up after your pets, as no one likes stepping in dog crap. Although it’s not for certain that “PooPrints” is a complete scam, so keep an eye out for the poo-police!
