Dawson Creek couple receive $700 fine for animal cruelty

2010-01-18

Wendy Stueck, Globe and Mail

SPCA calls for tougher regulations: help with investigation costs

It gets cold in Dawson Creek, especially for a coatimundi.

One such creature – a raccoon-like mammal native to Central and South America – was among more than 200 animals discovered in crowded, filthy conditions on a Dawson Creek property in 2008.

The coatimundi and 87 other animals seized as a result of a BC SPCA investigation are now in new homes. And last week, their former owners pleaded guilty to charges of animal cruelty, receiving a $700 fine, two years' probation and instructions to work with the SPCA to reduce the number of animals in the couple's care.

Although pleased that the case went to court, the SPCA says the fine does not reflect the scope of the case or the SPCA's cost to pursue it. “We would have loved to have seen a restitution order,” Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the BC SPCA, said Monday, adding that the agency does not receive government funds to conduct animal cruelty investigations.

Veterinary, transportation and other costs related to the Dawson Creek case amount to at least $40,000, Ms. Moriarty said.

The case involved private animal collectors, whose menageries can fall in a grey area between municipal bylaws and provincial regulations on keeping lions, tigers and other exotic animals.

British Columbia, for instance, last year introduced new rules for alien species, spurred in part by the 2007 mauling death of a woman by a caged tiger on a property near 100 Mile House. Earlier this month, an Ontario man was attacked and killed by his 650-pound tiger as he entered the animal's cage to feed it, renewing calls for licensing of dangerous animals in that province.

But such regulations do not necessarily restrict private collectors, especially if they focus on animals that are not on lists of banned or dangerous species, said Julie Woodyer, campaign director for Zoocheck Canada.

“Unless they are caught under some sort of bylaw in the area, or it's proven you have illegally imported the animals, which is just about impossible, there really is no legislation – no legislation to protect the animals, and really no legislation to protect the public either,” Ms. Woodyer said.

British Columbia, along with southern Ontario, is a hot spot for private animal collections, perhaps because busy border crossings link them to animal-import and trading networks in the United States, Ms. Woodyer says.

The BC SPCA visited the Dawson Creek property after receiving a complaint about animal neglect and hoarding. The agency said its officers found more than 200 animals, including horses, reptiles, llamas, exotic birds, goats, dogs, wolf-hybrids, cats, rodents, a boar, a lynx and the coatimundi. Most of the animals were being kept in an out-building with no ventilation, feces piled up in cases and no water.

The coatimundi was being kept in a dog crate and had chewed its own paws, Ms. Moriarty said.