Big stink over dog poo incident at Centurion mall

A small dog inadvertently caused a huge stink in a Centurion shopping centre‚ after running into a clothing store to answer nature’s call.

Police officers were called to Pick 'n Pay clothing store at the Mall at Reds on Monday after the dog's doodoo landed its owner in an awkward position.

The officers eventually instructed the dog's owner to clean up the mess after she initially refused – but not before the assistant manager was verbally abused by bystanders for being ‘lazy’ and ‘incapable of her job’ when she insisted the owner of the animal clean up after her pet.

Legogang Nldovu‚ who on Wednesday told The Times she has been working at the store for around two years‚ explained how it all went down.

“The dog came running into the store on its own and made a mess on the floor‚” she said. “Then two ladies came in and wanted to take the dog‚ but I discovered the dog does not belong to them.”

Ndlovu said the owner of the dog was nowhere in sight‚ but she could not allow the women to take the animal.

“I told them they could not take the dog if it did not belong to them. They said they wanted to take the little dog to the vet.”

Nldovu said a man arrived and spoke to one of the women in Afrikaans and she was then told they were taking the dog to the vet‚ and she would have to clean up the mess.

She says she kept insisting the dog be taken to the Centre Management office in case the owner came to reclaim the ailing canine.

The man apparently used extremely vulgar language‚ according to Ndlovu‚ and even told Nldovu she would lose her job because she was lazy and incapable of doing her job.

“They took the dog so I called security at centre management‚ who then called the police‚” Nldovu said.

In the confusion‚ the owner of the animal arrived and according to an independent eye witness‚ also refused to clean up the poop.

Nldovu said she did at least apologise.

“She told me she had locked the dog in the car and left the window open. At the end of the day I felt it was not my place to be abused or to clean up after another person’s dog.”

Carmen Reddy‚ who co-presents the Hamman Time show on 5FM‚ witnessed some of the altercation and spoke about the incident on air. She spoke to Times Live on Tuesday.

"I didn’t witness the entire thing but I was walking past and noticed the policemen with a lady and her dog outside the store and went closer to check out what was happening‚” Reddy said.

“Basically‚ it was a lady with her little dog and a child and the dog messed the floor and the cops were called in and they forced her to clean it up. She was extremely upset by this. The store provided her with a mop and she cleaned it before leaving.”

Many would believe the police were wasting their time‚ but in fact‚ they were perfectly within the law by compelling the dog’s owner to whip out a mop and bucket.

Chapter 12 of the Tshwane metro nuisance by-laws‚ which deals with health issues‚ states under section 28 that: no person may keep a dog if “the dog defecates when taken into a public place or road while under the control or supervision of a person and the person fails to dispose of the faeces in a refuse receptacle”.

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE