A B.C. landlord is demanding that dog owners who live in a Burnaby apartment building submit samples of their pet's excrement in order to sniff out the "poopetrator" who has been soiling the building's stairwell.
In a letter issued to the tenants of the three-storey Waldorf Manor, the landlord says that he will send out samples of the feces to a lab, so that it can be tested against two deposits that were left by an unidentified dog. The note added that non-compliance will result in an eviction.
Kevin Black and his dog Nuke live in the building, and he says that when he returned home one night he was overcome by a "horrendous" smell in the stairwell.
Black notified the landlord, who promptly gave residents the letter and a plastic bag for the sample.
"It just surprised me," Black told CTV Vancouver. “I doubt they're going to DNA test all this poop – I mean, come on now."
While some believe the landlord is simply making a big stink about the incidents, there is a company that specializes in testing animal feces for this very reason.
"Basically we help municipalities, condo complexes and apartment buildings identify "poopetrators," irresponsible dog owners who don't pick up after their pups," said Maggie Ashley, operations manager for PooPrints Canada.
Ashley told The Canadian Press that hundreds of strata councils across the country are considering gathering DNA information from residents' dogs, however she added that the Burnaby landlord's approach is unusual.
Tom Durning of the Tenant Resouce and Advisory Centre said that he might have trouble taking the landlord's threat seriously.
"If my manager knocked on my door and I had a small animal, and they wanted to see a stool sample … I don't think I'd get too legal, Durning said.
"I might burst out laughing; I might close the door on them; I might shake my head. But I don't know if I'd worry about it myself," he added.
Claude Paulin-Dupere, who is also a resident of building, told The Canadian Press that he opted to take the elevator after smelling the stench on Saturday night. He added that the smell was so foul that he thought someone had died.
Black, who says it was difficult to find an apartment that is accommodating for pet owners, says he has nothing to hide and will comply with the landlord's pet detective work.
"He can have all the poop he wants," Black said.
"(My dog) wouldn't make a smell like that, I would change his food. Trust me it was horrible," he added.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Shannon Paterson and files from The Canadian Press
