The Alberta SPCA is investigating the death of a cow in the MD of Bonnyville.
Earlier this month, a member of the public contacted the MD of Bonnyville’s public safety department after noticing a cow had been decomposing for over a month.
“If we know who owns the property, we will speak to them about it first. In this case, the property owner gave us the reason why they believed the cow had died, or how they were telling us the cow had died, and that didn’t really match with what we were seeing. There was a concern that perhaps the cow had died from hunger,” described director of public safety Chris Garner.
As a result, they called in the Alberta SPCA.
“Whenever we’re dealing with livestock, if it goes beyond something very basic, we call the Alberta SPCA because that’s where their expertise is. They have peace officers that come and check on these things, and they have tests they can do pretty quick in order to determine if there’s been a starvation issue or something else that’s happened to the animal.”
In this case, the Edmonton-based organization has taken over the investigation, however, couldn’t offer any details at this time.
Director of animal protection services for the Alberta SPCA, peace officer Ken Dean, explained how these types of investigations generally go.
“It all starts with a phone call to our office,” he said.
From there, a peace officer is dispatched to the source of the complaint.
Using an Animal Protection Act complaint as an example, Dean outlined how there are certain authorities that are granted to investigating officers.
For example, they can enter the property immediately upon arrival in order to determine the distress of the animal.
“Certain reports are a priority for us: deaths and downers,” expressed Dean.
A downer is an animal that is unable to rise under their own muscle power.
“If we get a call that this is the case, we immediately respond to it, it has priority,” he added.
Once an officer determines an animal is in distress or has perished, they establish ownership and speak to the owner about the animal.
“By law they have entitlement and the right to relieve the animal of its distress, and if that doesn’t happen, then we take the authority that’s given to us under the act and deal with the animal ourselves,” Dean explained.
Before charges can be laid, the Alberta SPCA determines a cause of death, which Dean described as a “very important” step in their protocol.
“Not every animal that dies is dying from cruelty or starvation on the part of a human being,” he said. “Many animals will die naturally, and others, we will get onsite and find out the owner has shot them prior to our arrival.”
In order to confirm the root of the fatality, officers will gather a sample from the animal and send it to a veterinarian for testing.
“It’s our job to go out there and find out what happened,” Dean stressed.
An investigation can take anywhere from weeks to months.
According to Dean, there are several factors that are at play.
“If we’ve taken body samples, we have to send them to labs and they have to be assessed, then we have to get reports back,” described Dean.
Once the results are in, the officer determines whether to pursue formal charges.
While some may believe they will simply be issued a ticket and have to pay a fine, Dean noted that’s not the case.
“Our court process isn’t a violation ticket offence. Our court process is long-form information. That means we summon the person into court by long-form information. We serve them with a summons after the investigation’s complete if charges are warranted, and it will be dated and properly served. That’s the day they appear in court before a judge and then they have their constitutional right of pleading guilty or not guilty.”
Dean continued, “If it’s a not guilty plea, it goes forward to trial. If it’s a guilty plea, the judge will assess it for monetary penalties and prohibitions.”
Depending on the circumstances behind the charge, a judge may place the animal owner under restrictions.
“Judges can make prohibitions on an individual who has been found guilty, and from that, it can be anywhere from a lifetime prohibition from owning animals to a year, six months, sometimes it involves us going out to the property to ensure any animals on the property are well looked after, it can limit the herd size… I’ve seen hundreds of these prohibitions and they’re only limited by what the judge decides. We don’t have a set program for prohibitions,” Dean explained.
Over the years, Dean has seen a variety of sentences handed out, with some fines as high as $20,000.
There have been cases where officers have decided not to pursue charges, and instead, work with the property owner to fix the problem.
Dean said, “In situations where we’re not going to court and we just need a little bit of an effort put forward by the animal owner, some of those, if the owner is willing to take that effort forward and work with it, we will.”
However, not all work out this way.
“If we have a situation where there’s a great number of deads on the property and they all come back with insufficient bone marrow stores or fat stores, then we have to look at it and say that this might not be the case that we can work with, but we do work with a lot of people, producers, and companion owners in order to make it compliant and to educate them as to what’s required,” added Dean.
According to Garner, the Alberta SPCA has been involved a few times so far this year.
He attributes the price of hay to the starvation concerns they’ve seen.
“We have lots of acreage people that have livestock,” he noted. “Quite often, farmers will have hay themselves and they will use that. It’s the people that either don’t have their own hay or don’t produce enough. They find the cost of hay is quite high due to supply and demand. That’s what’s causing some of our issues here, is people aren’t able to afford to feed their livestock at the level that they need to.”
He added, “Sometimes we’ll call them and it won’t turn out to be an issue, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.”
For those hesitating to call in a concern, Dean stresses there is no worry too small.
“What I would suggest, is anyone making a report to us, is if they’re not comfortable with what they see, make the report. That will give us the opportunity to go and look at the situation and determine if there’s a reason for concern here or not,” he emphasized. “I would rather for someone who is uncomfortable with what they see make a report and we can look into it and deal with it. If there’s any reason to go forward, we certainly will.”
In order to report an animal in distress, contact the Alberta SPCA at 1-800-455-9003, or go to their website www.albertaspca.org.
