I’ll admit that this one is a little odd, but I nonetheless found it interesting. I was reading a magazine, saw an offbeat business opportunity, and that led me to this tidbit about dog poop. I knew dog waste was unpleasant, but I didn’t realize it was toxic.
So first, the business opportunity. PooPrints is a company offering to DNA match dog waste to dogs. The idea is that apartment and housing complexes will be able to locate offenders of their pet clean-up rules without catching dogs in the act (short article on CNN.com). OK. Not my thing, but whatever.
Here’s the part where I learned something (other than that there is a business out there for just about anything). The article I read (as well as the PooPrints website) talked about the environmental and health dangers of dog waste. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I suppose it makes sense. This USA Today article from 2002 talks about the topic in a little more detail, but the gist is that the bacteria in dog poop poses a health threat. And the sheer number of dogs – more than 60 million – means that the issue isn’t insignificant.
Personal Learning 