Ottawa volunteer group helps clean up hoarders' home infested with rats

A local volunteer group has agreed to step in to help clean up a South Kanata home that was infested with rats.

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The home had thousands of items inside and was a breeding ground for the pests who quickly infested the property.

After CTV News visited the property last week, dead rats were still being placed on the front lawn of the home on Saturday. The owner was forced to bring in pest control and clean up the property after multiple complaints from neighbours to police, bylaw, Ottawa Public Health and city councillors.

"I knocked on the door and introduced myself and couldn't get the door fully open," said Paul Dietz, who is part of the community group Resettlement Resource Service Volunteers.

"We put together a team, put a bit of a budget together, made a proposal, and the onus was on starting as soon as possible because the neighbors were having issues. In this case, the homeowner is paying for it and he's been quite cooperative."

The owner accepted help from the volunteer group for the clean up of the thousands of items that the household was hoarding.

"Paul caught about 14 rats every day last week," said Stephanie Gabrielle Mouaga, another volunteer.

"Today we found about two or three, which is actually good when you think about how many rats there were from the beginning."

It's a massive job, with rats running wild through the property and trash piled up.

"We removed approximately 23 tonnes of various things from the place. We probably disposed of about 50 to 70 rats while we were removing things," said Dietz.

"Now we're in a heavy-duty rat catching mode, trying to get the last of the rats out of the place and then we need to remove some drywall and other things and get rid of rat waste."

The owner’s family was at the property on Saturday and didn’t want to appear on-camera. Those involved in the clean up say they are getting a better picture of what happened.

"From what we know, this is an unfortunate business loss after Covid. The business owner and his family, they were part of the community, and they were selling little goods and things like that. And they lost everything. When they moved, they had nowhere else to put it. So, they put everything in the home," said Mouaga.

Ottawa's bylaw department said last week that it can be challenging for them to step in these situations, but that this is one of the worst cases they have seen. Not complying with the order could have led to a fine of $100,000.