Baby daddy

In a little house-like office on North Boulevard near South Foster Drive, a sign for DNA Testing of Baton Rouge poses the question “Who’s the father?” Owner Ron Jenkins has used the slogan since he started his business in 1986, and he has no intentions of changing it. People have told him, jokingly or otherwise, that it should be “Who’s your daddy?”

Regardless of wording, Jenkins and his staff conduct between 200 and 300 paternity testing cases annually, collecting DNA samples from cheek swabs and send them off for identification. Tests are done for legally admissible evidence, or for “peace of mind.” They can be on-site or done in homes, prisons, even morgues.

So, is a day at the office akin to an afternoon of The Jerry Springer Show? Jenkins laughingly says it’s not, but acknowledges there are a lot of stories, funny and sad.

“We have just as many cases where they want to be the father as we do where they’re glad they aren’t the father,” he says. Tests are often arranged after an argument in which the mother uses “you aren’t the father anyway” as ammo. On occasion it’s even a case of an adult offspring getting tested for paternity after a lifetime of assumed genealogy. “We’ve never had to call the cops and we’ve never been sued,” Jenkins says.

Nine months after any major holiday, business usually picks up, Jenkins says.

Valentine’s Day is the 14th; mid-November should be busy.