Ontario SPCA seeks more than $168,000 in animal seizure case
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Photo: Steve Straub climbs the courthouse steps in St. Thomas.
© AgMedia Inc.
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Justice William Jenkins wanted to make sure he heard the numbers right.
“Yes your honour,” said a stern-faced Rebecca Tanti, a regional inspector with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, after she itemized the 87 animals the Society seized from a Vienna hobby farm in 2006, and the $168,746.86 the Society demands for their seizure and care.
Court filings show all but a handful of the animals were under the Society’s care for less than four months.
According to a statement of claim, the Society is suing Steve Straub and his father John to recoup expenses involved in seizing and caring for 17 ponies, eight donkeys, 25 ferrets, 16 quail, four cockatiels, 12 budgies, two doves, two finches and one pheasant found on the farm because of concerns for their health. The case is being heard this week in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in St. Thomas.
Interviewed last week, Steve Straub referred to the Society’s claim as “a joke” and said he has pinned a copy on the front door of his family’s house.
The younger Straub faced 19 criminal charges relating to care of animals. He pled guilty to one charge involving a “dirty budgie cage.” He says his defense on the criminal charges cost him more than $10,000.
Last week, Straub said that it had been difficult to drum up interest in his fight.
On Monday, however, members of the Ontario Landowners Association arrived at the old court house in St. Thomas to support him.
Four have been involved in disputes with the OSPCA previously, including Niagara Falls farmer Wendell Palmer, who took civil action after police euthanised a heritage breed boar on his farm in 2003 during a Society inspection. Palmer lost the case.
President Jack MacLaren said the association hopes to raise public awareness about the Society’s activities.
The Ontario SPCA, based in Newmarket, enforces provincial animal welfare laws. MacLaren described the Straub case as “an extreme bastardization of the legal system and the intention” of the province’s animal welfare laws.
“We continue to think of animals as property,” MacLaren said.
The Society is seeking costs of transporting the animals, veterinary care and Tanti’s time as well as other Society staff in visiting the farm.
Tanti testified it’s the owner’s responsibility to pay for animals under the Society’s care. These costs are waived if the owner surrenders the animal to the Society.
Asked for justification of the Society’s charge of $15 a day regardless of an animal’s size, Tanti said some of the birds were malnourished and required “numerous” attendants providing care “multiple” times during the day. The ferrets, donkeys and ponies seized were not socialized, making it more difficult to provide them with care.
The trial is scheduled to run for three to five days. BF