Bad Pet Owning Tenants making it hard for the good ones!

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I was reading this story in the Edmonton Sun today and was absolutely appalled! It's people like this girl that make it hard for responsible pet owners to find a place to rent for themselves and their furry loved ones, especially in our current rental market here in Edmonton, with less than a 1% vacancy rate. --- An Edmonton landlord found his rental property to be a health and sanitation nightmare after he evicted a tenant. "It's 1,050 square feet of disaster," Dennis Hillman told CTV Edmonton on Monday. The home is filled with garbage. There are piles of feces here and there. The bathroom door could barely be opened because of all the trash. Syringes were left on a dresser drawer. There were dead animals in cages. The SPCA had someone searching for other dead animals hidden in the mess and has removed some live ones. "I expected a mess but that's not even close to a mess. It'll take me a month of cleaning to get it up to a mess," Hillman said. CTV's Deborah Shiry said what can't be captured on tape is the overpowering stench, which left her cameraman retching. A 21-year-old woman had been living there for about 18 months. Hillman had last renovated the West Edmonton home about two years ago. He said he evicted her after two of her rent cheques bounced. "She said she needed another day or two to get moved out. She said she had to clean up. That slays me," he said. Another tenant lives below the disaster zone. "I guess I'm used to it because I live here," Anne Egli said. "But when my company comes over, that's the first thing they say is, 'catty litter; it smells like garbage in here'." Health inspector Bob Mowat worried about the impact of the mess on Egli. "Because they share a common furnace and common air exchange, I'm recommending that she not live here until the work is completed," he said. Animal feces become a health hazard because they become airborne over time. The Capital Health Authority has offered to help Egli find some alternate accommodations. Mowat said as bad as this particular place is, "it's certainly not as bad as some I've seen." Inspectors say they are likely to condemn the house on Tuesday. In one bedroom, the tenant left a sign that said, "I am willing to take responsibility ..." http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/08/06/4397908.html http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2007/08/07/4399039-sun.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/08/07/4399173-sun.html