Dog owners in Bolzano must submit their pets for DNA tests as the authorities in the northern Italian province crack down on the scourge of dog poo in the streets.
The swab test results will be inserted into a database, which police can then refer to in their search for the culprits and their owners. The evidence will be used to fine owners between €292 and €1,048 (£250 and £900).
The law required the estimated 45,000 dogs in the province, located in the mountainous Trentino-Alto Adige region, to undergo a DNA test at a veterinary clinic by the end of December 2023 before the initiative is introduced this month. But only 5,000 have complied, according to reports in the Italian press.
The measure has been contentious, especially among the dog owners who diligently clean up their pet’s poop and who are now obliged to pay €65 for the test.
In addition, there have been questions over how the complex and costly initiative will be managed, especially if the culprits are strays or are owned by tourists.
“It is easier said than done,” Madeleine Rohrer, from the local Greens party, told the newspaper Il Giornale. “It will only be an additional expense for the municipality and for the police, who have many other things to do.”
Arnold Schuler, a provincial councillor, said the database was still “in the implementation phase” and that additional vets had been found to help carry out the DNA tests. “In this way, we are making it easier for everyone to have their pet registered,” he told Rai news.
The DNA tests will be compulsory from the end of March and hefty fines await owners who fail to register their pets, Paolo Zambotto, director of Bolzano’s veterinary department, told Il Giornale.
Schuler said the database would also be used to identify dogs killed in road accidents or that attacked other animals or people. Despite the criticism, he said other Italian regions had been inspired by the initiative.
Animal associations had organised petitions calling for the law to be scrapped before the 31 December deadline. “The most interesting thing is that many people who don’t have dogs signed the petition,” Filippo Maturi, president of Assopets, an association for the protection of animal owners, told the local news website Altoadige.it in December. “It is an unjust law which does not solve the problem and which, above all, has enormous management costs.”
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The province’s veterinary association also objected to the scheme. “This decree serves no purpose,” said Franz Matthäus Hintner, the association’s president. “I live near Merano, and for every two tourists there is a dog – who pays to test those dogs?”
A similar scheme was trialled in the French town of Béziers last year.
