Dave and his wife live in a condo complex in Northern Virginia. They also own a dog. Now, because of new a rule by his condo association, they and anyone else who owns a dog has 30 days to provide a DNA sample of their canine companion.
According to the letter Dave received from his condo association [emphasis is ours]:
As part of the registration process, dog owners must pay a registration fee to be determined by the Board of Directors, and which may vary from time to time as necessary. The Association will use these fees to defray the costs of enforcement of this policy and the rectification of damages and wear and tear caused by dogs within the community. The Association will provide each dog owner with a kit designed for the purpose of taking a DNA sample of the dog for identification purposes. Dog owners are required to obtain and use the kit to take the DNA sample in the clubhouse in the presence of the On-Site Manager. The Association will forward those samples to a special company for storage and, if necessary, further testing.
So not only are they requiring condo owners to register their dogs. The association also doesn’t trust dog-owning residents to take the DNA sample on their own, lest you provide them with DNA from your goldfish.
Why are they doing this? The letter only says “for identification purposes,” but we’re guessing the condo association was inspired by this New Hampshire apartment complex which required doggie DNA so it could determine whose pooches were pooping in inappropriate places.
“Because some people do not clean up their dog’s mess, they now want mandatory DNA testing of all dogs,” Dave writes to Consumerist. “Failure to do DNA testing will result in the removal of your dogs. This is both disgusting and intrusive… My question to you is: can they seriously implement this and get away with it? If I was told from the start that this would be a mandatory system, I would have NEVER moved in.”
We’ve written to the management company for the condo complex to ask the specific reasons behind the DNA demand and also why the registration fee for dogs is both unspecified and variable. If they respond, we will update.
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I just find this confusing. I live in a pretty dense, old neighborhood without a homeowners’ association, and feel perfectly safe walking in my yard barefoot. Stepping in something is exceedingly rare, even though there’s no homeowner’s association to protect us from the errant dog pile and plenty of people have dogs.
Is there something about HOAs that creates the problem they’re trying to solve? Maybe they only think it’s dog**** when it’s really bull****….
Simple, give them a fake sample.
They’re inviting you to drop a bag of poop on their desk. Why would you say no!?
This should also extend to humans.
Submit DNA samples and when cleaning crew finds cigarette buts on the ground, do dna analysis and fine the offender.
I live in an urban residential area (read: densely populated). I park on the street. Today, as I was getting in my car, I stepped in poop that was lying in the grass directly next to my car. This happens weekly! This one was fresh, resulting in my tracking it into the car and rubbing it into the carpets before I even noticed. My car smelled like poop the entire ride to work. F**#! And I know I will be spending at least an hour today cleaning the car and my shoe.
All this because some lazy a$s didn’t pick up after their dog. I am totally in support of this measure by the HOA; in fact I have thought that my city should have the same requirement.
As for the people saying this is “invasive,” I really don’t see where you come from with that opinion. Invasive to whom? You? You are telling me you have a deep privacy interest in your dog’s DNA? Are you saying it’s invasive to your dog? Are you F’ing kidding me? Do you really think taking the DNA sample is going to cause Fido some sort of mental distress? Really? Fido doesn’t even know what DNA is.
On top of all that, as people have pointed out, a condo association is a democracy. If the residents are against it they can have it overturned. The argument that the COA is “invading privacy” because it wants your dog’s DNA is just ridiculous. Stop, think, and shut up.
Give them DNA from a friends dog and then let yours poo everywhere. lol let them figure it out.
That’s probably why the requirement is to “use the kit to take the DNA sample in the clubhouse in the presence of the On-Site Manager”
Most HOA have monthly meetings where they vote on changes to the rules. My guess is that they were one of those homeowners that never attend the monthly meeting, and so now are being caught unaware and are throwing a fit. If you aren’t active in your HOA, then can’t bitch about it after the fact.
I live in an apartment complex and I wish they would do this. I see people walk by outside the window and they just let their dog crap without picking it up. Ugh. So nasty and rude. It’s a nice place, so their isn’t as much of a problem as at our last place, but it still happens. So rude.
Since pets are considered property under the law I’m guessing that they can do this. If you register your car with your HOA they will usually ask for your tag number, vin number, and license number. Perhaps they see a DNA profile simply as a unique identifying marker of your property. It’s kind of creepy, but probably nothing you can fight in court. Probably isn’t long until we’ll be using DNA profiles like serial numbers on our pets anyway. Just think of your Condo Association as Progressive and Forward Thinking instead of creepy and invasive.
The OP says this is a new rule. Was this new rule presented to the members of the association and voted on? If not, it is likely illegal.
It would be except for the “we can change this contract for any reason in any way without notice an if you don’t like it suck our binding arbitration” clause in the contract they signed.
Tell them that you don’t GIVE A SHIT! Literally and then sue them for trying to make you give a shit lol.
Call in the Canine ACLU.
So… If I get the DNA of some dog that’s out of town or out of state, and give it to them, it’ll never match up to my dog. Now you’ll never have to worry about someone coming up and saying your dog did something. If someone notices the DNA doesn’t match (who will actually take the time out to match DNA of a dog?), then you can just tell them that was your old dog that passed away. You just got this new dog recently.
Know how to beat this? Borrow a dog for a day to bring in for DNA swabbing.
I suspect it may have nothing to do with poop. Perhaps they intend to screen for dogs having, say, rottweiler or pit bull ancestry and force those owners to choose between their dog and their home.
Just plop a “Lawn Care Application Please Stay Off the Grass” sign in your yard. They will steer away from you.
Me, I just spray my lawn with insecticide or fungicide.
No worries, just take in a different dog that sort of looks like yours. What are they going to do, ask the dog for its name.
Make sure the condo association doesn’t have a hand scanner to look for a chip.
Now you know why you should have been going to those condo association meetings.
Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone is trying to make rules/laws to micromanage everyone else?
Dogs have been crapping for years and there’s obviously a way to handle it that doesn’t include DNA testing.
Jeezus.
I live in a condo complex and am on the HOA board. About 30% of the units have dogs, and fewer than half of those clean up after them. This means our gardens are full of dog shi*. There is space under the stairwells and some owners just let their dogs have a free-for-all as if it were designed for that. Many of them walk 12′ to the property edge (there’s a hillside there) and have their dogs poop just outside the boundary of the property. All of this means anybody walking down the sidewalk can smell dog poo, anyone using the stairs can smell dog poo, and there are flies everywhere. Everyone complains, but they still won’t clean up after their dogs.
We used to have a patch of grass, but the dogs couldn’t resist it, and there were always brown spots all over it. We removed it and replaced it with jasmine, which the dogs proceeded to pee all over and kill. So we had a border of carpet roses (with thorns) put around the garden of jasmine, and that helped a lot.
It is expensive to hire someone to go around and clean up the poo, and it’s not fair for the 85% who aren’t causing the problem to have to pay for it. So if someone has a better solution than this (other than putting carpet roses everywhere), I’d love to hear it.
I guess you should have kept your dog on a leash and stopped it from shitting and pissing all over other people’s property.
I would check the rules and regs (or whatever they are referred to) to see if this is legal. It may have to be written into them with a vote from the members. Each state has different laws regarding the rights of homeowners.
We live in a retirement HOA community with lots of walking trails and about half the people have dogs. I do not think it is a problem here but I have lived in places where many people are not as considerate Taking a dog’s DNA does seem a little extreme and I doubt there has been a legal precedent to do so.
Maybe when the system is up and running, the dog owners who break the rule should be fined an amount to cover a rebate for those who do not,
you spent all this money on a home to have some dipshit tell you what you can or cannot do.
These types of rules are common in high rise condo Associations. The rule is written without stating an exact fee so the legal process required by state law to change the rules and regs (with the required printing, mailings, and time stamps) can be avoided as it is very expensive and time consuming.
As with most other fees such as in unit maintenance charges for work orders and move or elevator fees the Board can vote to raise or lower them without having to revise the rules.
As the saying goes 20% of the people are responsible for 80% of the problems. In a shared community, one persons refusal to pick up dog waste increases costs for everyone. The lazy person should have to pay for all the additional costs of staff wages to clean up their dogs poop and carpet cleaning, elevator cleaning, enzyme deodorization, etc. Pets require work, if you don’t want to do the clean up hire a walking service.
I live in a very small condo complex, and my neighbor two doors down has two HUGE dogs that scare the heck out of everyone. They are aggressive and unfriendly, and their manure output is about what a small elephant exudes. Of course, neither she nor her roommate pick up after them, and it’s in our condo by-laws and in the city laws that dog owners have to pick up after their pets. Everyone is scared of both the owners and the dogs. They don’t always observe the leash law, either, and when I hear a “WOOF! WOOF!”, I know those dogs are out without a leash. So far I’ve been able to get to safety before they got to me, but I know someone’s days are numbered around here, whether it be me or another neighbor or their pet.
HOAs suck, but people who do not clean up after their idiot dogs SUCK MORE