Hmmm... billing the animal abusers ... its about time!

From the CBC News website tonight
Online pet store owner to be billed for seized animals
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 6:09 PM AT Comments0Recommend2
CBC News
The owner of a now-defunct pet business in P.E.I. will be held financially responsible for the animals seized from him last month by the Department of Agriculture.
More than 80 animals were taken from kennels belonging to Bud Wheatley, who owned PuppiesAcrossCanada.com. The website has since been suspended.
The pets were taken to the P.E.I. Humane Society, which said it would bill Wheatley for the extra costs.
"It was the first time in the history of the P.E.I. Humane Society that anything that large had been undertaken and that we had helped that many animals so suddenly," said Kelly Mullally, the organization's executive director.
She said under the Companion Animal Protection Act, it is the group's responsibility to take care of the animals seized and to bill the owner of those animals for any expenses incurred.
"We're responsible for that debt and we have to collect that debt," she said. "If we're not able to collect that debt within 24 months from the owner, then we're able to go to the provincial government and get some assistance."
The seizure doubled the population at the animal shelter, which now cares for more than 200 animals.
Mullally said there have been corporate donations and extra volunteers to help, but the task has been expensive and time-consuming.
In an effort to increase adoptions, the shelter is keeping its adoption floor open until 8 p.m. on Thursday and on Nov. 12.
Now if they could make that stick, that might be a more significant deterrent that slap on the wrist fines will ever be. As anyone with a pet knows, its all too easy to wind up with a substantial vet bill for a normally healthy animal that has been well loved and cared for. Even with the available resource of the vet college, it doesn't take any imagination to picture the vet bills for this seizure.
Collecting the debt from the owner is on the books for the existing Animal Cruelty Act here in NS, and has been for some time. If a prosecutor could be found who was not willing to coddle animal abusers, this could be both a useful tool and act as a deterrent against abuse.
As always, the penalty is only part of the picture. Until the language of the Criminal Code sections pertaining to animal cruelty changes, there are far too many loopholes that still permit animal abusers to evade prosecution. How many times have the Benoits slithered out the courtroom door because the crown has been unable to prove they were the "owners" of the unfortunate animals in their care. If you will remember, the paltry thirty day sentence Gail Benoit received this year was NOT for animal abuse ... it was for assaulting a peace officer in the person of an SPCA constable.
Inadequate penalties will continue as long as the the phrase "willful neglect" , which is nearly impossible to prove 'beyond shadow of a doubt" , remain in the language of any animal cruelty laws.
What time is it? Its always time to remember that the single thing ... the only thing ... that will inspire our federal politicians to effect any meaningful change for the animals is strong voter feedback. Its time to remind our politicians that getting Bill C-229 to the first reading is only the very first part of the journey.
This is not new ground ... so for the convenience of readers whom I continue to nag about contacting their MP's, ( and for my own convenience in not reposting this material regularly : ))) Scroll down to the bottom of the page for contact information for your Nova Scotia MP