In the story called ‘Animals seized from Southside” published in the Lakes District News’ March 22 issue, the B.C. SPCA had seized 27 animals living in deplorable conditions from a Southside property.
However, dozens of horses were left behind.
The B.C. SPCA says that, since then, the property owner has taken action to remove approximately 20 horses from the property. However, the B.C. SPCA was not able to say where the horses were taken or how they were able to verify this information.
According to Marcie Moriarty, chief prevention and enforcement officer with the B.C. SPCA, no constables have been back to the property to monitor the situation since the seizure took place on March 9, 2017.
When asked if the B.C. SPCA will return to the property any time soon to monitor the situation, Moriarty said constable Dale Bakken will be following up with the compliance of the various notices issued to the property owner. However, she was not able to say exactly when.
“I can’t go into the details of what those notices are because it’s private,” she added.
Since the story was published on March 22, Lakes District News has received information that the B.C. SPCA was first informed about the suspected animal cruelty in 2010. When asked if this information was true, Moriarty said she was not able to verify it.
“I can’t confirm, but I can’t deny it,” said Moriarty. “I don’t have any files on that unfortunately.”
“I looked into our files in our online system, which we didn’t have in 2010, and I wan’t sure if information had been transferred over,” continued Moriarty. “I don’t have a file in this particular system and I can’t check the others.”
Alistair Schroff, director of the Lakes Animal Friendship Society (LAFS), has also said that the suspected animal abuse was known to the B.C. SPCA for “significantly longer than two years.”
Moriarty said the B.C. SPCA did not address the situation earlier due to a lack of resources.
“Unfortunately we don’t have a constable to cover that area,” she explained. “We are not funded by the government to do our enforcement work and so we do the best that we can with the donor dollars.”
“We respond to approximately 10,000 cruelty complaints a year with just 30 full-time constables, and it’s obviously very troubling for us that we can’t be everywhere,” she continued.
“That’s the reality in some of the places in the province which are more remote and we don’t have the resources to have our boots on the ground, so we try to think creatively and work with other agencies to reach as many animals as we can,” she added.
Schroff said he has experienced enforcement issues with the B.C. SPCA in the Lakes District since LAFS became active in the community in 2008.
“For many years there was no B.C. SPCA special constable in the area between Prince George and Prince Rupert, so the capacity for the B.C. SPCA to respond to reports of suspected cruelty was limited,” he said. “Our frustration at that time on a number of fronts was that the B.C. SPCA represents itself as helping the animals across B.C.”
“Things turned a page somewhat in 2013 when constable Dale Bakken was assigned to our area,” he continued. “As one constable assigned to a very large region, he has some definite challenges but we have been grateful to have this enforcement presence.”
Schroff added that it’s taken time to build up awareness and faith that reports will be taken seriously in the region.
“In the initial stages of our efforts, we found that people were questioning why they should bother reporting since nothing would be done,” he said. “This is not the first suspected cruelty case in our area nor is it the only situation of concern; we need to keep working together to eliminate animal cruelty in the region.”
The B.C. SPCA now has custody of the animals seized on March 9. The dogs and puppies are being cared for by staff and volunteers at the North Cariboo SPCA branch in Prince George and the horses are being housed with a Prince George equine rescue group.
The B.C. SPCA has recommended charges of animal cruelty that could impact the animal owner’s future ability to own animals, should those charges be accepted.