201 badly neglected dogs seized from rural Alberta property

spaminator

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201 badly neglected dogs seized from rural Alberta property
SHAWN LOGAN, QMI Agency
First posted: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 02:04 PM EST
CALGARY - Suffering malnutrition, serious injuries and severe neglect, 201 dogs have been seized from a rural property in southern Alberta.


Alberta's SPCA is now building a case to charge the owner of the property, about 300 km southeast of Calgary, who has had problems with animal welfare authorities previously in both Alberta and Saskatchewan.


SPCA spokesman Roland Lines said the seizure is the largest in the organization's history, and the condition the dogs were allegedly forced to live in were not close to humane.


"They were all malnourished and dehydrated," he said.


"The dogs were found mostly just on chains staked around the property -- they were sheltering under vehicles and sheds that weren't appropriate for the winter weather."


An SPCA investigator went to the property -- whose owner the Sun has learned is April Irving -- just before Christmas following a complaint from the public, Lines said.


The officer convinced the owner to voluntarily relinquish 60 of the animals, but feared many more were unaccounted for on the sprawling property.


A team of investigators, rescue agency personnel and a veterinarian returned with a search warrant Jan. 13, seizing another 141 dogs.


Lines said one puppy seized didn't survive and another dog was euthanized based on a veterinarian's advice -- four additional puppies were also found dead on the property.


After a 10-day period for the owner to apply for their return expired last week, the surviving 139 joined the first 60 in the care of the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society.


AARCS executive director Deanna Thompson said the agency has farmed out the dogs to partner organizations while they recover from the ordeal.


But it will take time, with many of the emaciated animals still fearful and in poor health.


"We've seen a lot of neglect and abuse cases but this by far has to be the worst," she said, noting the group includes a puppy with a broken jaw and another with a broken leg.


Thompson said it will likely be quite some time before any of the dogs are available for adoption.


Those looking to help in the meantime can donate to AARCS or other southern Alberta rescue agencies, volunteer to help foster the crush of animals, or volunteer time.


"It will cost thousands and thousands to spay and neuter them and provide proper medical care," Thompson said.


shawn.logan@sunmedia.ca


Twitter: @SUNShawnLogan
201 badly neglected dogs seized from rural Alberta property | Canada | News | To
 

Mowich

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This is the third time this pathetic piece of garbage has had dogs removed - the third frickin' time for pete's sake.
 

SLM

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Why can't PETA make themselves actually useful in the world and make this bitch a super special project of theirs? 24/7 monitoring to make sure she never ever again goes near another anormal.
 

spaminator

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After 319 dogs seized, is Alberta woman Canada's worst pet owner?
Michael Platt, QMI Agency
First posted: Thursday, January 29, 2015 09:00 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 29, 2015 10:59 AM EST
CALGARY -- She's had a total of 319 dogs seized from her care over the past eight years, in three separate raids spanning two different provinces.


The list of injuries and ailments has included broken bones, starvation, parasites and fur so badly matted the dog in question couldn't defecate.


A few of the animals were beyond saving, including two dogs vets were forced to euthanize following recent raids on a rural property in southern Alberta, and another four puppies found dead on the same Milk River, Alta., farm.


April Irving is without a doubt one of the worst pet owners Canada has ever seen -- and yet, with a tradition of soft sentences for animal abuse and no way to keep track of those convicted, it's very likely she'll soon own a hoard of dogs again.


"Oh, my god. I'm so sorry -- yes, we've obviously dealt with her before."


That's how Tricia McAuley took the awful news of yet another alleged neglect case: she's a spokesman for the Saskatoon SPCA, which helped to handle the last dog disaster linked to Irving.


That was in 2010, when officers from the Saskatchewan SPCA raided a property near the town of Leslie, east of Saskatoon, and seized 82 dogs in desperate need of medical attention and human contact, with some of the animals cowering at the sight of toys or a food dish.


Irving, not surprisingly, denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters, "My dogs are spoiled rotten."


But a Saskatchewan court ruled the only thing rotten was Irving's care of the dogs, which were all eventually rehabilitated and adopted out.


Charged under Saskatchewan's Animal Protection Act, Irving was eventually found guilty of non-criminal neglect and fined $5,000, the highest penalty possible at the time.


She was also forbidden from owning more than two dogs at a time for a decade -- a restriction with absolutely no teeth in Alberta, where she now lives.


"How would you stop someone like this? I have no idea, unless the legislation came down really hard and there was a national database to keep track of them," said Sue Humphreys, a rescue co-ordinator with the Irish Wolfhound Club of Canada.


The wolfhound club has been involved with all three of Irving's clashes with animal protection officers, including a 2007 raid with saw the Fort McMurray, Alta., SPCA seizing 36 huskies and wolfhounds from a northern Alberta kennel run by Irving.


Prior to the seizure, Irving had bragged to a Fort McMurray Today reporter that her kennel business, called Doggie Daycare and Nights Too!, was run on a philosophy of providing ample attention to each individual animal.


"I won't take more dogs than I am comfortable with," she said.


Comfortable apparently means dealing with a couple hundred dogs at once.


Alberta SPCA officers have removed a total of 201 neglected animals from the Milk River farm where Irving was living, and she is expected to face charges of neglect.


One of the agencies left to care for the hoard is Calgary-based AARCS, where executive director Deanna Thompson described it was one of the worst cases she has ever seen.


Knowing that the suspect has been convicted of mistreating animals before just makes it more frustrating, said Thompson.


"It's very disturbing to know a person can (allegedly) do this on more than one occasion," she said. "That's the way the laws are unfortunately."


It's not that the law doesn't provide for harsh sentences -- Alberta's Animal Protection Act sets the maximum penalty for animal neglect at $20,000, along with restrictions on owning pets, while the Criminal Code of Canada states anyone causing unnecessary pain and suffering to animal faces up to a $10,000 fine and a maximum of five years in jail.


It sounds fierce, but the reality has been much softer penalties, even when the abuse borders on sadism, such as the 17 months given to a Vancouver man in 2013, after he was found guilty of torturing cats and filming their suffering.


Even if convicted of neglecting the dogs from Milk River, there's little chance of Irving serving time in jail, and nothing to stop her from establishing a new hoard of mutts somewhere else.


Dog ownership, sadly, is as simple as answering a classified ad.


michael.platt@sunmedia.ca
After 319 dogs seized, is Alberta woman Canada's worst pet owner? | Canada | New
 

spaminator

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Petition calls for lifetime ban from owning pets for alleged dog abuser
By Claire Theobald, Edmonton Sun First posted: Sunday, February 01, 2015 01:22 AM EST | Updated: Sunday, February 01, 2015 01:32 AM EST
EDMONTON – A petition calling for an Alberta woman allegedly involved in the largest animal cruelty case in the province to be banned from owning animals for life has garnered thousands of signatures.
Animal advocates are reeling after learning the accused, April Dawn Irving, 55, has had more than 300 dogs seized from her care in Alberta and Saskatchewan in eight years.
“There's a serious shortfall in the legislation if someone can have 319 dogs seized from them in three separate cases," said Charlene Myers, founder of Animal Cruelty Legislation Advocates Canada, who launched the online petition at change.org.
In the most recent case, 200 dogs, many of them emaciated, matted and suffering from wounds and broken bones, were seized this month from a rural property in southern Alberta.
"The dogs were found mostly just on chains staked around the property. They were sheltering under vehicles and sheds that weren't appropriate for the winter weather,” said SPCA spokesman Roland Lines.
One puppy didn't survive the rescue and another dog was euthanized, he said.
In December, Irving agreed to surrender 60 dogs to the SPCA. And on Jan. 13, the SPCA returned to the property to seize the remaining 141 dogs. The surviving dogs are now in the care of the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS).
“We've seen a lot of neglect and abuse cases but this by far has to be the worst," said AARCS executive director Deanna Thompson, who said one puppy arrived with a broken jaw and another with a broken leg.
Shocking images of dogs with matted fur and showing rib cages sparked outrage, but revelations that the accused owner had 82 dogs removed from a property in Leslie, Sask., in 2010, fanned the flames.
Irving was charged and convicted under Saskatchewan's Animal Protection Act of non-criminal neglect and fined $5,000, the highest penalty possible at the time. She was also banned from owning more than two dogs at a time for 10 years, but that ban is only applicable in Saskatchewan.
"She simply just moved to Alberta where the ban wasn't able to be enforced," said Myers.
The petition calls for provincial and federal animal neglect and cruelty charges against Irving, and the maximum penalty, including a lifetime ban from owning animals, if she’s convicted.
More than 7,775 people signed the petition as of Saturday night.
Myers wants to see Irving charged under the criminal code so any bans could be enforced across Canada.
"We just really hope that the courts will start to acknowledge, and I think they are, the fact that animal cruelty needs to be taken seriously and people need to be given some sort of meaningful punishment so that they know it is not acceptable to treat animals like that.”
The SPCA said charges are pending.
-- With files from Shawn Logan
Petition calls for lifetime ban from owning pets for alleged dog abuser | Canada
 

Blackleaf

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If you want to see 201 badly neglected dogs you only have to stand outside any Bolton nightclub at closing time in the early hours of a Sunday morning.
 

MHz

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She should see some jail time for this, it's beyond the pale.
Perhaps he should have already been doing jail time as he has a history of animal abuse,

If you want to see 201 badly neglected dogs you only have to stand outside any Bolton nightclub at closing time in the early hours of a Sunday morning.
Or Buckingham Palace as they royals come and go, oh wait, in their view you are the dog and they have treated you like that from the beginning. I see you finally know your place and have quit complaining about it.
 

Blackleaf

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Or Buckingham Palace as they royals come and go, oh wait, in their view you are the dog and they have treated you like that from the beginning. I see you finally know your place and have quit complaining about it.


The Royals have never treated me badly. The Royals put the Great into Great Britain.