Santa Margalida town hall hoping to eradicate this. | Archive

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Santa Margalida town hall is to adopt a DNA registration system for dogs. Already used in certain parts of Spain, such as Malaga, the system will create a database against which dog mess can be checked.

Mayor Joan Monjo says there will be an amendment of municipal bylaw to establish fines related to this system. Once the bylaw is introduced, owners will be obliged to register their dogs. The cost of doing so will be around twenty euros per dog. There will then be a tender for a company to undertake the work of analysing the DNA of faeces; the analyses will be checked against the database.

The mayor accepts that if it turns out that a dog isn't registered, the town hall will have to pay for the analysis. In cases where a dog is registered, the owner will be liable for this cost as well as for the fine.

Monjo stresses that the great majority of dog owners are responsible and remove dog mess. He hopes that the five per cent who don't pick the mess up will now do so. He adds that in the past few months the town hall has created four dog parks in Can Picafort.