A French town is so annoyed with lazy dog owners not cleaning up after their pets that it's introducing a poop DNA database to track and punish them

• A French town has a dog poop problem. Authorities are overwhelmed with the amount being left on its streets.
• The mayor's new plan: using a DNA database to link littered poop back to the dog's owners.

A French town has had enough of people leaving dog poop on the streets. So it's trialing a new program that will use DNA to track and punish lazy pet owners.

Robert Ménard, the mayor of Béziers in the south of France, told Radio France Bleu that the town will experiment with a dog DNA database that will run until July 2025, as part of his long-standing promise to keep the town's sidewalks poop-free.

The situation has become particularly dire recently, he told the French radio station, adding that authorities pick up more than 1,000 animal turds each month in the town center alone.

"This can't go on any longer," Ménard said.

Under the new program, dog owners will be asked to take their pets to a vet for a free saliva sample. This will then undergo genetic testing to create a unique genetic passport for each animal, Radio France Bleu reported.

Owners will be required to carry this document while walking their dogs in the center of town. Failure to produce the passport upon request could result in a fine of €38 ($43), according to Radio France Bleu.

And when authorities find dog poop on the sidewalk, the sample will be collected, tested, and cross-referenced with a national pet register to identify the owner.

Those responsible will receive a fine of €122 ($137), Ménard said, per Radio France Bleu.

Leniency will, however, be extended to tourists and other people visiting the town, he added.

Ménard first proposed the idea in 2016, but it was rejected by a local administrative court as being too restrictive on personal freedoms. This time, however, it has not been opposed.

"We have to penalize people so that they behave better," Ménard told Radio France Bleu.

He added: "I can't take any more of this crap."