The B.C. SPCA is concerned that changes by the provincial government to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act will lead to shelters being overrun by seized animals awaiting rulings on their fate.
However, the Ministry of Agriculture says that the changes were a result of the public’s interest and the province’s desire for increased transparency into the seizure of animals by the SPCA.
Changes to the act were introduced in Bill 24 on Tuesday and establish the British Columbia Farm Industry Review Board as an independent tribunal to review cases rather than going to court.
The review board would only decide whether animals seized by the SPCA should be returned to their owners.
“This is not to dispute the charges,” says Lorie Chortyk of the SPCA. “Those go to court, you know. They have their day in court. This is just if they decide they should get their animals back.”
But returning animals after they have been seized is rare, says Marcie Moriarty, B.C. SPCA general manager of cruelty investigation.
That usually only occurs when a seizure resulted from either a failure on the part of the owner to respond to a notice by the SPCA, or a warrant was needed to help an animal in distress, but the issue was later addressed by the owner.
The review board would only hear seizure appeals after the SPCA’s own 28-day internal review process.
“The legislative changes will lead to a quicker and more cost-effective dispute-resolution process for animal owners and the BC SPCA,” said Minister of Agriculture Don McRae.
MLA Marc Dalton (Maple Ridge-Mission) says the average review would be completed in 60 days.
“The changes are designed to free up valuable court time and provide animal owners with a less formal and more cost-effective dispute-resolution process,” he says.
“It is not fair to compare the time it takes the FIRB to make a decision on a multi-million dollar issue involving numerous parties, for example, quota allocation in a supply managed commodity, to an animal appeal process that involves only the SPCA and the animal owner.”
He does believe that the number of disputes will increase slightly, but does not expect any more than 10 to 15 appeals in any given year.
However, Craig Daniell, chief executive officer of the B.C. SPCA, said the new review process would take longer. When animals are seized now, reasons for not returning animals are given within an average of 14 days.
“Our concern is, rather than having those animals come in, get the care they need, get rehabilitation and be re-homed, we’re going to have to hold animals from six months to a year while we wait to see if we have to return them or not,” says Chortyk added.
“It also means that as long as those kennels and cages are filled with seized animals just in a holding pattern, we can’t bring in any new animals into the community.”
Chortyk is also concerned that costs to the SPCA and donors will rise as there could be more disputes.
“But the other thing too is that for each of these disputes, we’ll have to provide legal counsel. So, instead of our donor money going to help animals, it’s going to go to legal costs.”
Both Daniell and Chortyk maintain that the BC SPCA supports fairness, transparency and oversight through an appeal process, but say the current system works well.
“Our fear is that the new system adds layers of bureaucracy, which will mean fewer animals may be rescued from suffering and fewer animal abusers brought to justice,” Daniell says.