Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Don't get me wrong. Some of this HOAs and condo boards can be downright fascist. But we are only talking about DNA testing dog poop here nothing else.

Downright fascist and DNA testing actually seem to go together fairly well for me.

What's next? Give the dogs little tattoos and put them in a camp?
 
Don't mind this at all, but the punishment does not fit the crime. It's littering. Why is the fine $1,000? That's like a hundred parking tickets in my region. :eek:
 
- All motorcycles were evicted from the development
- No washing your car
- No satellite dishes (this one we've confirmed violates federal law)

no washing your car? **** that. who's to tell me i can't wash my car. this is america, not iran.

yay more government regulations.

vote sarah palin for president 2012!

this post is proof that we need a basic intelligence test before you can vote. like you have to be able to tell them what 2+2 is.
 
So, every dog owner, no matter if he takes care of his dogs feces or not, is being punished by having to pay for the DNA-taking? Great stuff, hello 1984!

I like that idea. Send the irresponsible owners (who think they're entitled to let the pet drop a deuce on other people's property) to Room 101 in the Ministry of Love.:p

What some people don't get is that the COA wouldn't come up this rule if the pet poop problem didn't exist. You reap what you sow.

The pet poop problem is great enough in Houston for them to pass a city ordinance. So anyone who let's their pet poop without scooping it up, it's a $75 fine. If it were in Houston, I'd recommend them set up CCTV and send the video to Houston's animal control enforcement. It'll boost the city's budget and cut down on the problem.
 
I don't know what you do then. The answer is probably not "compile massive doggie DNA database".

Burn a bag of the stuff on their porch?
My next door neighbors, whom I hope would all fall into a hole, have a dog they fail to keep contained. I've got pictures of this dog trespassing on my lawn, leaving his turds all over. I've gone so far as to have to police come out on multiple occasions; the last time the officer almost shot the dog in question (at-large dogs are eligible to be shot). Even citations and fines (at least two, and not cheap) have done absolutely nothing to convince these tosspots to keep their dog contained. You know what did? When I started creatively returning their used dog poop - they got the message really fast.

If you're not prepared to look after a dog, then you don't need to have a dog.

Don't mind this at all, but the punishment does not fit the crime. It's littering. Why is the fine $1,000? That's like a hundred parking tickets in my region. :eek:
The fine for littering here is $500 for a first offense, and then it goes up. $1,000 doesn't seem that out of line.
 
Don't mind this at all, but the punishment does not fit the crime. It's littering. Why is the fine $1,000? That's like a hundred parking tickets in my region. :eek:
It's a lot more than littering - dog faeces is disgusting and potentially a very serious health hazard. If the dog hasn't been wormed properly, the faeces can carry Toxocariasis which can cause permanent blindness...


So you would like to pay $200 or $500 even though you clean up after them?

Sure, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if it meant that the streets and play areas were clean: To put the cost into perspective, it costs around $50 a month to feed and insure a dog making a total cost of over $8,000 for the average lifespan of 14 years. On top of that, you've got the cost of the dog in the first place and suddenly an extra couple of hundred dollars to make sure owners are responsible doesn't look bad at all.

Here in the UK, I pay more than £2,000 a year in Council tax (which is tax to the local authority for refuse collection, public transport subsidies and other local services). I'm sure some of that money goes on things I never use, but that's the nature of taxation, and this is a similar situation (although more targeted as it doesn't ask non dog-owners to pay)
 
I fully support this rule and almost want to suggest it to my HOA. Some neighbor, and we haven't been able to catch him/her, lets his/her dog regularly take a dump behind our building of townhomes. One time I looked off the back deck and could count almost 40 piles. You know what made me look? The smell. Our deck smelled like dog crap, and it's elevated 12 feet off the ground. We still have no idea who is doing it. I have sent complaints, but what can THEY do if they don't know who is doing it? I've thought about setting up a camera.

Luckily, the vast majority of people in our neighborhood pick up after their dogs. Its a very select few who don't.

WestonHarvey1 said:
I've lived under two of them and they are terrible. They're harder and harder to escape now because even single family neighborhoods are forming them - you pay for the privilege of being told what to do, and don't get any services out of it.

HOAs run the gamut of good to bad. Not all HOAs are horrible, and to suggest as such is just ignorant. I love the idea that no one in our neighborhood can leave their garbage can sitting out on the street for days or weeks on end, or that they can't leave some car on blocks in the driveway, or keep a load of crap in their yard. HOAs were formed BECAUSE of ignorant, arrogant, disrespectful neighbors, not in spite of them. You wouldn't have to be told what to do if you weren't an inconsiderate douche.

And to say HOAs offer no services is just a joke. Some offer very little, but they should then also charge very little. My HOA provides full lawn maintenance and landscaping, pool cleaning and upkeep, a service to clean out the many pet waste stations, a 24/7 guard at our security gate, hefty insurance on our buildings, yearly deck cleaning and staining, exterior paint upkeep, gutter cleaning, and more. And this is no luxury development, let me assure you...it's about as cheap as you get.

They also enforce many rules such as our parking regulations (much required and often ignored) enforced with towing, the garbage-can-on-the-street thing, and the no-college-flag policy on non-game days (which I think should be changed, but was brought on when sales slowed because our street looked like fraternity row).

If you don't want to live in an HOA, then don't move into a neighborhood with one, plain and simple. If that's getting harder, then tough for you I guess...apparently lots of pother people prefer them. Or better yet, find a neighborhood where all of the owners respect the other owners in the area and do everything they can to keep the area nice and safe.....good luck with that one.
 
Keeping dog DNA on file is also good for Homeland Security. Who knows, after all those dogs might be muslim terrorists!
 
Dogs belong outside, not in the house. Period.

Cuddling with Fido on the bed or couch is fine, but you pay a big price in terms of hygiene - both personal and that of your living space. Dogs don't wear shoes and take them off when they walk inside. I haven't seen any wipe their feet as of yet or excuse themselves to go wash up. And most of them shed and drool all over the place.

I used to breed German Shepherds in Northern Ontario (cottage country) as part of a family business, and had dogs as a part of my life. I played with them, trained them, loved them. We sometimes had 30 at at time, from pups to adults. Not one, ever, set its foot in the house.

Dogs are NOT people. Stop treating them like they are.
 
Don't mind this at all, but the punishment does not fit the crime. It's littering. Why is the fine $1,000? That's like a hundred parking tickets in my region. :eek:

I think $1,000 is fair: it gets the attention of the residents who engage in this disgusting behavior, and the fine is meant to be punitive, afterall. However, the good news is no one has to pay if they simply obey the rules, and pick up after their dogs.

I hate, with a burning passion, dog/animal feces: smell, look, etc and avoid public grassy areas for fear of stepping into it, but I pick up after my sister's dog whenever I walk her. If I can suspend my distaste (borderline phobia) for this particular activity long enough to abide by our local pooper scooper laws, then so should they.
 
Wouldn't videocameras work just as well (and be a lot cheaper than DNA testing)?

That said, I can see how people are getting to the point where this seems like a good idea. We live in a very nice subdivision and have frequently found dog crap on our sidewalk, in our front yard and in our driveway. (And it's most certainly not from OUR dog, because he stays in our fenced back yard.) Not the sort of thing you want to discover after your 4-year-old is riding his big wheel right through it.

Moderately amusing aside ... when our late, beloved Maltese, Macy, was still alive, she would generally refuse to poop anywhere besides our back yard. We eventually stopped bothering to carry bags with us on our walks, because, well, she NEVER pooped on a walk. Until she did, of course. So we returned home, drove back to the scene of the crime and jumped out of the car to pick it up. I always hoped to God no one ever saw us drive up, get out and pick up what must have looked like random dog poop, then drive away with it ...
 
Dogs belong outside, not in the house. Period.

Cuddling with Fido on the bed or couch is fine, but you pay a big price in terms of hygiene - both personal and that of your living space. Dogs don't wear shoes and take them off when they walk inside. I haven't seen any wipe their feet as of yet or excuse themselves to go wash up. And most of them shed and drool all over the place.

I used to breed German Shepherds in Northern Ontario (cottage country) as part of a family business, and had dogs as a part of my life. I played with them, trained them, loved them. We sometimes had 30 at at time, from pups to adults. Not one, ever, set its foot in the house.

Dogs are NOT people. Stop treating them like they are.

I have seen breeders with outdoor only dogs ... they are usually the mangiest dogs you will ever see. On the other hand ... breeders that let their dogs inside their houses tend to have cleaner dogs and cleaner houses.

Dogs are not outdoor only animals except the ones who hunt for themselves.
 
I have seen breeders with outdoor only dogs ... they are usually the mangiest dogs you will ever see. On the other hand ... breeders that let their dogs inside their houses tend to have cleaner dogs and cleaner houses.

Dogs are not outdoor only animals except the ones who hunt for themselves.

I agree. Our German shepherd is inside and isn't allowed on the couch or the beds (my husband has mild dog allergies), and our house is plenty clean. He's a great dog and I can't imagine leaving him outside all the time. He'd get terribly sad ... we're his "pack."

Plus, I credit his numerous "kisses" as the reason my kids never get sick. They have kick-butt immune systems :)
 
HOAs run the gamut of good to bad. Not all HOAs are horrible, and to suggest as such is just ignorant. I love the idea that no one in our neighborhood can leave their garbage can sitting out on the street for days or weeks on end, or that they can't leave some car on blocks in the driveway, or keep a load of crap in their yard. HOAs were formed BECAUSE of ignorant, arrogant, disrespectful neighbors, not in spite of them. You wouldn't have to be told what to do if you weren't an inconsiderate douche.

And to say HOAs offer no services is just a joke. Some offer very little, but they should then also charge very little. My HOA provides full lawn maintenance and landscaping, pool cleaning and upkeep, a service to clean out the many pet waste stations, a 24/7 guard at our security gate, hefty insurance on our buildings, yearly deck cleaning and staining, exterior paint upkeep, gutter cleaning, and more. And this is no luxury development, let me assure you...it's about as cheap as you get.

They weren't formed for any of the reasons you said. They were formed for the purpose of managing common property, a significant challenge with multi-unit dwellings. They devolve over time into a nanny state.

When I said "no services" I was specifically talking about the new fangled single family HOAs - where villages decide they don't want to be responsible for new developments and force an HOA to form. Those HOAs don't own any property and thus don't do any landscaping or anything else. They do, however, tell you if you can wash your car or not, etc etc etc. And you pay for the privilege.
 
They weren't formed for any of the reasons you said. They were formed for the purpose of managing common property, a significant challenge with multi-unit dwellings. They devolve over time into a nanny state.

When I said "no services" I was specifically talking about the new fangled single family HOAs - where villages decide they don't want to be responsible for new developments and force an HOA to form. Those HOAs don't own any property and thus don't do any landscaping or anything else. They do, however, tell you if you can wash your car or not, etc etc etc. And you pay for the privilege.

again depends on them again.
Take the HOA my parents are part of of single family dewlings.

The HOA maintains the pool, the park and the medians in the neighborhood and then has a list of rules that are required to be followed.
That is things like no leveling garbage out on the curb for days on end. no cars on blocks, keep your yard mowed and maintained, no crazy house colors.
Worse of them is basket ball goals must be in ground ones but not a huge deal there.

The only people who really get in trouble with the HOA do not mow their yard or try to leave campers in their driveway all the time.
It is not a big deal if you have a camper there a few days on one is going to care. Worse case is you will get a letter but even that is rare. My parents generally will get the mow the yard one the weather is right and they are out of town for a week but it is not a huge deal since yard gets mow when they get back any how.
 
They weren't formed for any of the reasons you said. They were formed for the purpose of managing common property, a significant challenge with multi-unit dwellings. They devolve over time into a nanny state.

When I said "no services" I was specifically talking about the new fangled single family HOAs - where villages decide they don't want to be responsible for new developments and force an HOA to form. Those HOAs don't own any property and thus don't do any landscaping or anything else. They do, however, tell you if you can wash your car or not, etc etc etc. And you pay for the privilege.

I don't agree with rules like not being able to wash your car and stuff like that. But let's not pretend for one second that HOAs don't serve some purpose towards keeping disrespectful neighbors in line. Let's look at an example of such a thing.

Read up on Prince Mongo, who was somewhat of a local celebrity in Memphis and now Florida, due to his crazy shenanigans and offbeat personality. Since he's apparently independently wealthy through no work of his own, he's spent his life making other people miserable, simply because he can.

uptocode2.jpg

22mongo_t607.jpeg


One of his biggest claims to infamy is to take whatever house he has, and fill the front yard with debris, obnoxious yard art, toilets hanging from trees, mannequin heads, coffins, and whatever other junk he can find. All entirely legal since he owns his properties, and solely for the purpose of pissing off people. However, by doing such things, he affects other neighbors by making it harder for them to sell their place, and ultimately reducing property value. Living in an HOA development prevents such crap from happening. I, for one, would rather know that some self-important douchenozzle can't come in and screw up the neighborhood for everyone else. Other people have other opinions, and feel it is their right to do whatever they want on their property...neighbors be damned. Legally, yes they can as long as there is no HOA. But morally...come on.

EDIT: Oh, and his newest thing, after having his property's decorations bulldozed, is that he is looking for some violent felons to move into that house. Just to prove that he will win.

Of course, you have the hard-core HOAs that don't let you wash your car, require window-shades to always be closed, only allow certain types of vehicles, don't allow even a POD on your move-in day, etc. Many HOAs go way too far, but many are simply there to keep the neighborhood nice. Before our HOA took a big stance on parking in our neighborhood, you almost couldn't drive down the street. People were parked EVERYWHERE except in their own driveway or garage. One unit wanted six parking passes for a single one-car-garage townhome. Really?? This was denied and for good reason.

Again...I am not saying all HOAs are good. Many are absolutely terrible and run by power-hungry elitists. Most are not that way, and serve to benefit the homeowners.
 
Last edited:
Wouldn't videocameras work just as well (and be a lot cheaper than DNA testing)?

:eek: Honestly, I'd much, much rather have a doggie DNA database than cameras everywhere! That seems much more like privacy infringement if you ask me...

And to those of you who've been suggesting this is police-state-like, I call bs. Asides from the cost (which someone showed was pretty insignificant relative to the overall cost of dog-ownership), what are the downsides to this? No dog would be upset about others knowing its DNA sequence, and presumably no dog-owner who takes care of his/her pet has anything to fear...
 
Wouldn't videocameras work just as well (and be a lot cheaper than DNA testing)?

Cameras are more expensive.

Decent night vision camera costs hundreds before installation costs. You need many cameras to identify culprit. You also need system to store the footage, and probably labor to look over it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.