FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:ANIMAL ADVOCACY GROUP MOVED TO ACTION AFTER $5 FINE FOR KILLING CATS

Subject: PRESS RELEASE: ADVOCATES FOR RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERSHIP - ARPO

PRESS RELEASE:

ADVOCATES FOR RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERSHIP - ARPO

March 4, 2009
Halifax, Nova Scotia


www.arpolistens.ca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:ANIMAL ADVOCACY GROUP MOVED TO ACTION AFTER $5 FINE FOR KILLING CATS

ARPO - Advocates for Responsible Pet Ownership are calling for support from the general Public, organized Groups, Politicians and interested parties to join together to advocate for immediate appropriate and supported change in the Public Prosecutions and Attorney General's Office of Nova Scotia with the March 2, 2009 guilty plea of a Windsor, Nova Scotia woman who received a $5 fine for drowning the offspring of a stray cat.

The reason given for the very light fine and no other punitive punishment proposed by the Crown Attorney - William Ferguson, was because the woman was on welfare, and also had been unable to get help from the SPCA in taking the kittens’ stray mother, and the prosecutor had also been trying to get the organization to deal with a stray on his property.

In a press release issued by the provincial branch of the NS SPCA,Sean Kelly said that "What this case has done is it has made it okay to kill any stray animal by drowning it, clearly there is a need here to educate our prosecutors on what our mandate is versus the mandate of the municipality, and to educate them on what responsibilities lie with the municipality's Animal Control division."

This is not the first time in recent memory that the Public Prosecutions Office has struck such a weak and unacceptable deal with individuals who have committedd heinous acts against animals. Just 2 months ago in Cape Breton Alice and Zonda MacIsaac brokered a pleabargain with the Public Prosecutions office that let them keep their own personal animals, and also had animals returned to them that were seized a year previous when Zonda MacIsaac's shelter was raided and Alice MacIsaac's home was searched and dozens of dogs seized due to a hoarding situation.

Non-punitive convictions such as these cannot be allowed to continue in Nova Scotia. To have laws that are weak, and then have a Public Prosecutions Office and Crown Attorney's not feeling like they can go to trial to is an abuse of every Nova Scotian who loves animals. This government department are staffed by representatives who are paid by tax payers of the province and are therefore reportable to us - the pet loving public.

Advocates for Responsible Pet Owners in Nova Scotia is calling for a public response from the Public Prosecutions office as to why they didn't feel it necessary to enforce the same laws on animal abusers.