Dresden Dogged by Government Waste
After the sad news about the deaths of Pope John Paul II and Terri Schindler Schiavo, it may be inappropriate to write about the topic I have chosen for this column. I felt the need for a brief respite from sad events and suspect some readers may also.
I read a March 31 WorldNetDaily article about a proposal by legislators in Dresden, Germany to register the owners of the city’s approximately 12,000 dogs for genetic testing of the animals. This will be done in order to genetically match droppings left by dogs on city sidewalks to the animals that deposited them. Owners who failed to clean up after their pets would be fined. Dresden may become the first city on Earth to have a doggy doo CSI. In terms of government stupidity, this seems to beat that of the Town of Kensington, MD where Santa Claus was banned from a public Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
Dog waste is foul smelling, unsanitary and unsightly. According to the WorldNetDaily article, the German TV news program, "Tagesschau" reported "You hardly get out the door and the obstacle course begins". I completely understand the need for "clean up after your dog" laws. Such laws are common in U. S. cities. Sidewalks in those cities are usually clean and I often see people with collecting their dogs’ deposits in plastic bags. Somehow, all this happens without forensic testing of dogs and their droppings. Are Americans simply more law abiding than Germans or have we found a better way to enforce that law?
Wouldn’t the cost of DNA testing all of the city’s dogs, DNA testing the droppings and comparatively matching them be considerably greater than the revenue collected in fines? (Imagine being a lab technician in that crime lab – and you thought you hated your job.) That doesn’t even include enforcement costs. Would the law be enforced by officers visiting scofflaws with copies of lab results and baggies containing the evidence? Would it be enforced by mailed tickets? I can imagine the letter: "Dear Herr Krause: The crime lab has determined that the dog waste found on 02 April, 2005 on the sidewalk in front of the Gartenstrasse bank branch was deposited by dog # 08252, which you have registered as ‘Max’. Instructions regarding payment of the fine or arranging a hearing are on the enclosed ticket."
Did the canine forensic testing proposal result from a study to find the least cost-effective way to deal with the problem? It seems like it would be cheaper to have police officers walk beats to enforce all laws. It also might be cheaper for the city to hire a "pooper-scooper" patrol to clean its sidewalks.
Either Dresden has few problems or their legislators have too much free time. Maybe the Dresden legislators should get dogs to keep them company, (cleaning up after them will use up some of that free time). I remember Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Awards. Will the German version of those be the Golden Dog Turd Awards?
Ó Eva Ellsworth, 04/02/05, all rights reserved
I read a March 31 WorldNetDaily article about a proposal by legislators in Dresden, Germany to register the owners of the city’s approximately 12,000 dogs for genetic testing of the animals. This will be done in order to genetically match droppings left by dogs on city sidewalks to the animals that deposited them. Owners who failed to clean up after their pets would be fined. Dresden may become the first city on Earth to have a doggy doo CSI. In terms of government stupidity, this seems to beat that of the Town of Kensington, MD where Santa Claus was banned from a public Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
Dog waste is foul smelling, unsanitary and unsightly. According to the WorldNetDaily article, the German TV news program, "Tagesschau" reported "You hardly get out the door and the obstacle course begins". I completely understand the need for "clean up after your dog" laws. Such laws are common in U. S. cities. Sidewalks in those cities are usually clean and I often see people with collecting their dogs’ deposits in plastic bags. Somehow, all this happens without forensic testing of dogs and their droppings. Are Americans simply more law abiding than Germans or have we found a better way to enforce that law?
Wouldn’t the cost of DNA testing all of the city’s dogs, DNA testing the droppings and comparatively matching them be considerably greater than the revenue collected in fines? (Imagine being a lab technician in that crime lab – and you thought you hated your job.) That doesn’t even include enforcement costs. Would the law be enforced by officers visiting scofflaws with copies of lab results and baggies containing the evidence? Would it be enforced by mailed tickets? I can imagine the letter: "Dear Herr Krause: The crime lab has determined that the dog waste found on 02 April, 2005 on the sidewalk in front of the Gartenstrasse bank branch was deposited by dog # 08252, which you have registered as ‘Max’. Instructions regarding payment of the fine or arranging a hearing are on the enclosed ticket."
Did the canine forensic testing proposal result from a study to find the least cost-effective way to deal with the problem? It seems like it would be cheaper to have police officers walk beats to enforce all laws. It also might be cheaper for the city to hire a "pooper-scooper" patrol to clean its sidewalks.
Either Dresden has few problems or their legislators have too much free time. Maybe the Dresden legislators should get dogs to keep them company, (cleaning up after them will use up some of that free time). I remember Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Awards. Will the German version of those be the Golden Dog Turd Awards?
Ó Eva Ellsworth, 04/02/05, all rights reserved
1 Comments:
Of course dog waste is a problem, but stiff penalties and a public information campaign sometimes isn't enough. Being able to match a crime to the perpetrator is the benefit of forensic science.
Germany is a seriously clean country due to the ethics of native Germans. The trash pile and dog excrement problem is almost exclusively an issue in Turkish and Muslim neighborhoods. Native Germans rarely break public sanitary laws, it is the immigrant population. The reason why German officials want to take a "CSI" approach to doggy-doo is because German police are less willing to confront immigrants on the street. Mailing a citation to a violator is a lot less confrontational than stopping someone on the street and risking a multicultural incident.
Of course DNA testing is too expensive for such an innocuous crime. But it is an example of the lengths the authorities will go to avoid conflicts with a fast growing and increasingly hostile Muslim minority.
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