Moncton residents raising stink over dog poop

MONCTON – The Greater Moncton Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals is urging people to clean up after their dogs for health reasons.

“It’s not only the law, it’s responsibility, it’s the right thing to do,” said the Society’s director of animal welfare, Nanette Pearl, noting feces are unsanitary along Moncton trails.

The City of Moncton has a bylaw for owners to clean-up their dog’s waste. The SPCA is responsible for enforcing the bylaw and fines can range from $100 – $1,070.

“We only have four officers, two full-time and two part-time,” Pearl said. “But there’s 50 km of  trails in the city and green space areas so we can’t be everywhere at once.

“We are there as an enforcement agency but we are not the ones responsible to pick it up. It is the owner’s responsibility to pick up after their dog.”

But the spring thaw is revealing that many owners haven’t been following the bylaw. Mounds of dog poop have been appearing under melting snow.

Some are making money from the mess. Wes Breau runs a dog waste clean-up business. He says calls have been piling up all spring.

“People want their yards cleaned up from the winter mess and usually we keep them on a weekly basis,” he said.”Maybe there needs a lot of awareness out there for the public, since it does cause a lot of diseases and germs.”