'It was so bad': Dead dogs' remains left exposed for months after fire

When Katja Wiessner moved into her new home about a year ago, she never imagined the backyard would be off limits.

The Lefroy resident bought the property with dreams of gardening and relaxing on the large backyard deck, or having a good meal at the picnic table with her husband and son.

Then, in November, a neighbouring rental house was destroyed by fire. While the tenants weren’t home at the time, several dogs perished in the blaze. Due to the extensive damage, no one was allowed back onto the property, and the remains of the animals were left exposed to the elements.

In winter, they froze. But when the weather began to consistently warm up in March, Wiessner started to notice a putrid smell. It wouldn’t go away and made being outside for any length of time nearly unbearable.

“Nothing happened with the structure; the dogs have been lying in there until now,” said Wiessner, who was home when the fire broke out and called emergency services for help.

She still recalls hearing a loud bang and seeing flames bursting from the building.

This spring, Wiessner contacted the town’s bylaw department, which sent staff to the scene on April 25 and May 4 and determined the corpses were not in a state of decay and that the odour was emanating from the burned shell of the house.

She had hoped a mechanism was in place through the municipality to force the removal of the bodies.

“It’s been six months (since the fire),” she said. “What were people expecting to happen? There’s a process to play out. But if there was a human in there, somebody would have taken the body out. Whose responsibility is it, in a residential setting, to make sure that’s taken care of? Everybody just shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘It’s not my problem.’ If nobody is being forced to act faster, things like this happen.”

When town officials attended, they located a crate with a deceased dog inside that was beyond decay — by then the remains consisted mostly of bones and fur.

“Bylaw is aware and actively investigating a concern regarding the smell and alleged decay of animals at this address,” town community standards leader Mitchel Harris said. “While the investigation is underway there is limited information we can disclose but we can confirm no decomposing animals were found on site. The town continues to work with the owner to remediate the site and is working with the building department to secure the necessary permits. While the town does not control the speed in which the requirements of the permit is fulfilled, we continue to assist the owner through the process and recognize the challenges with losing a home.”

However, Eugenio Petrasso and his crew have an account that differs somewhat from the town's. Petrasso is the president of EP Construction, which was hired by the property insurer to conduct demolition and a rebuild of the house.

He and his crew were on scene about a week ago to dispose of the “10 or 11” bodies. They did so, but he described the scene as being “so disgusting” and having a “foul smell” and says some of the remains had maggots on them.

“The tenant was breeding dogs there,” he said. “The insurance company reached out and told him to pick up his dogs and give them a proper burial. All he did was put them in garbage bags. I had to make arrangements to have them cremated and get rid of them. He wasn’t picking them up. A couple of my workers did not want to do it. They were puking. It was so bad. It was absolutely terrible. I’m a dog lover. It was a sight I don’t want to remember right now.”

Petrasso agreed to dispose of the remains after speaking to the property owner, Jesse McGregor, who lives out of province.

“It’s not Jesse’s fault; the tenant was supposed to take care of the issue,” Petrasso said. “They never did.”

McGregor has owned the site since 2020. He called the situation “really unfortunate” and says he was unaware of the exact condition of the property following the fire. He admits he owes Wiessner an apology.

“I wish I knew sooner,” he said. “I wasn’t going to go pestering the tenant (to have the bodies removed); I know he’s going through a rough time. The house burned down and he’s been gone and struggling without a place to live. I don’t think this was him being irresponsible. I did not know there were still dogs in that house until insurance reached out. It was pretty unfortunate it sat there. I will have to apologize for that.”

The cleanup and demolition would have occurred sooner, McGregor insists, but the weather, insurance claim processing and permitting held work back.

“It took a while for anyone to go inside the house … It was unsafe,” he said. “I would have assumed the fire department takes care of them. When insurance reached out to me, I was shocked. But the house was unsafe for anyone to enter, so they just sat there because we didn’t have a demolition permit.”

Petrasso says the new house should be constructed within three to four months and then the property will be sold.

“(McGregor) doesn’t want to deal with tenants anymore; tenants are nothing but headaches,” he said. “This is a nice area. He’ll sell it, for sure.”

While the smell now ranges from faint to non-existent, Wiessner says she’s traumatized by the lingering thoughts of the fire and its aftermath.

“Everybody was distraught; you can imagine what that does to somebody,” she said. “It happened so quickly. These were not responsible people. The scale of it — we’re not talking one dog. We’re talking 10 dogs. It was so awful. Every time I smelled it, it reminded me of the day. It’s triggering.”

The town, meanwhile, encourages anyone with concerns about possible bylaw violations to contact the customer service department by calling 705-436-3710. More details can also be found at innisfil.ca.