By Alex McCuaig

Child services, SPCA involved

Two Redcliff rental homes destroyed, left covered in feces by tenants

Jun 18, 2020 | 4:53 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The state of two rental properties in Redcliff is raising concerns about the conditions of a child and a number of animals left to live in squalor and the landlords left to clean up the mess.

Wendy Hilsendeger says she first rented to the couple and child along with two dogs about nine months earlier. And despite issues with rental payments that required dispute resolution, the home seemed to be in good shape up until the end of May.

CHAT News is not naming the couple to protect the identity of the child.

On June 6 she learned her renters had moved from the home without notice and went to inspect the residence that was once her childhood home.

She started with the backyard shed.

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“That’s where I found two cats. One was dead, one was alive,” said Hilsendeger. “There was no food, no water so I closed the shed up and drove to the RCMP right away.”

Hilsendeger said she and an officer entered the home and found the residence covered in feces and urine in such quantities that it soaked through the floorboards of the upper level into the basement.

It’s a situation that has left her devastated.

“It’s not only the financial loss but all the emotional stuff that goes with it that affects my husband and I sleeping,” said Hilsendeger.

She believes there were up to eight puppies about five- to six-months-old that were offspring from the two dogs.

The couple, child and dogs moved not too far away to a recently renovated home owned by Pio Cristini.

But Cristini was told there were only two dogs. He discovered this week that wasn’t the case.

“They were here less than two weeks and when we came to bring back a washer, we found the home destroyed,” said Cristini.

Like Hilsendeger’s rental, the home was covered in urine and feces.

Both landlords say the couple appeared normal with no indications of any problems when they first rented to them.

Cristini says the effect of that will leave him with a nagging feeling of renters in the future.

As for having a child living in such conditions, “it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “It really is because having a child, you want to protect them as much as you can but living in those conditions, I’m sorry, you’re not protecting your child.”

Redcliff RCMP say child services and the Alberta SPCA are involved in the matter.