Condo Media - September 2014 - 53

by Nena Groskind

Whose Doggie Did It?
D

evon Wood is a large condominium community (398 units
in 17 buildings on 350 acres),
and it had a large problem
- dog poop. The association's petfriendly policy allows one dog per unit.
That adds up to a lot of dogs with a
lot of waste that many owners weren't
cleaning up.
This is a common problem in community associations that allow pets and
is one of the reasons many prohibit
them. But Devon Wood found an
uncommon solution: use DNA testing
to match deposits with pets and the
owners responsible for them.
This out-of-the-box idea solved the
Braintree, Mass., community's unscooped poop problem and earned
CAI-NE's "Excellence Award for Creative Solutions."
Waste left where it was deposited and
not cleaned up as the association's rules
require had been a perennial problem at
Devon Wood, annoying owners, maintenance workers, and contractors who
stepped in it and frustrating the community's board and its manager Barbara
Kansky, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, because
of the near impossibility of identifying
irresponsible owners and fining them.
The final straw for Kansky came when
an owner walking early one morning
saw a pet she recognized doing its business and reported the owner for failing
to clean it up. When the owner received
a violation notice, she insisted that her
dog wasn't responsible. "Her dog had
been caught in the act, and she still
denied it," Kansky says. That was when
she knew they had to do something.

At Devon Wood, the
Proof Is in the DNA

DNA Testing -
for Dogs?

Researching options
online, she discovered
a company that had developed DNA testing
for dogs as a tool for
multifamily properties
trying to enforce cleanup rules. Her initial
reaction: "I laughed
myself silly for 15 minutes," Kansky says. "I
knew DNA had revolutionized the criminal
(l-r) Devon Wood Condominium Trust Treasurer Evan McLoughlin,
justice system, but
Trustee Jennifer Plaza, Co-chair Miriam Brooks, and Chair David
for dogs?" However,
Solomon accept award from CAI-NE President Frank Lombardi.
the more she learned
about the program, the more appealing it
sponsible owners, it wouldn't compel
seemed. Devon Wood's board, too, was
owners who were not cleaning up their
initially amused but quickly persuaded
pets to do so. With the DNA soluthat the idea was worth considering.
tion in hand, board members voted
The trustees consulted the assoto install the waste stations in order to
ciation's attorney, who said a bylaw
demonstrate to owners that the trustees
amendment approved by owners wasn't
"were invested in the decision and not
necessary; the board could adopt a resojust mandating more rules and regulalution requiring owners who had dogs to tions that were unreasonable," Kansky
provide the DNA samples required for
explains.
the matching process. The resolution the
The next step was to identify all the
board crafted required owners to pay the dogs in the community. A freedomcost of the initial test required to obtain
of-information-act request filed with
DNA samples. If a deposit produced a
the municipality produced a list of the
DNA match for a pet on file, the owner
licensed dogs. But not all dogs are liwould have to pay for that test plus a fine censed, even though a state law requires
for the violation.
it, so Kansky knew that list wasn't comBefore deciding on the DNA testplete. To fill in the blanks, she turned
ing plan, Kansky says, the board had
to her maintenance staff, who often
considered simply installing pet waste
do work inside owners' units and "had
stations throughout the community.
a pretty good idea of who had dogs."
But they had decided that while this
Within a month, Kansky says, she had
would make clean up easier for reidentified all 55 dogs in the community.
Condo Media * September 2014

Condo Media - September 2014

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