Making up for a sick week

Me and Buttercup have been in bed all week, but it seems like the world has continued on without us - which is a good thing. I can't tell you how behind I am in my emails - I probably get 150 - 200 a day, and multiply that by 10 - and I am like everyone else in the world, and don't know when I'm ever going to catch up.

A couple stories today struck my interest though, so I thought I'd put them here, in the hopes that I am feeling better and will kick-start getting back to having a life again.

This week up in New Brunswick the SPCA up there has been busy - they have saved like 300 animals from abusers and puppy mills - I found 2 news articles about the stories.

I can't remember if I've talked about the fact that the Quebec government has decided to start cracking down on the literally 1000`s of puppy mills in that province by hiring a bunch of cruelty investigators and giving more teeth to the legislation in that province - right now they only have 5 cruelty investigators for the province, and Ontario has over 300 - so that gives you an indication that they might have some problems - but they are planning on tackling what`s going on. New Brunswick has also decided to crack down - and you can see by these articles and other recent raids - that they`re also making inroads and making their puppy millers uncomfortable.

So what do you think is going to happen? Ontario has 300 cruelty inspectors, Quebec has five but is hiring a ton more, New Brunswick has something around 10 I think and Nova Scotia has - 2.5.....

So where do you think puppy millers are going to want to set up shop? Especially with the legislation we have in place - and the crown prosecutors we have who don't even want to enforce the legsilation that the 2.5 cruelty invesigators work so hard to try and get justice for the suffering animals.

So unless this is an industry that the Nova Scotia government wants to cultivate and make money off of - these are news stories that we are going to become more familiar with - puppy mill raids in OTHER provinces - and then we're going to also start hearing about puppy mills setting up shop in OUR province.

Here's the couple stories I read today -

Three cases of animal cruelty probed that involve nearly 100 animals
Published Wednesday March 18th, 2009

Amid growing concern that Canada's animal cruelty laws are too lax, New Brunswick SPCA uncovered three more cases over the weekend involving a total of nearly 100 animals.

In the most alarming of the three, five full-grown Boxer dogs and 30 chickens were found dead Saturday on a property in the Restigouche area.

Marguerite Diotte, animal protection officer for Restigouche County, discovered the dogs in a shed with blood on their noses and mouths.

The cause of their death is still unknown and a necropsy - an autopsy for animals -has been ordered on the dogs.

Diotte said the SPCA was still working to track down the owners of the animals, but added that "there are charges that could come from this."

In a separate incident Saturday, a total of 36 young dogs were recovered from a puppy mill in the Bathurst area after a warrant was executed with the RCMP.

Paul Melanson, chief inspector with the New Brunswick SPCA, said the dogs are in "various stages of health," with some suffering from frostbite, malnutrition and bite wounds.

The dogs were Bernese Mountain, a retriever-cross, huskies and a variety of mixed breeds. Twenty-one of the animals were brought to Fredericton and are being kept at a facility for seized animals. The rest are in Dalhousie.

The SPCA also removed three dogs and 20 pigs over the weekend from a property in Madawaska.

Melanson said the pigs have frostbite and that one of the dogs was emaciated. He anticipates charges in at least two of the incidents, if not all three.

Melanson acknowledged that there have been an inordinate number of animal cruelty cases in recent months.

"I don't know whether it's because more people are reporting them, or because there are actually more cases," he said. "We know that puppy mills are increasing, because they mean tax-free money."

The rash of incidents follows public outcry over a February court decision that found a Minto man not guilty of killing five Pomeranian puppies with a hammer.

Oromocto MLA Jody Carr, an outspoken critic of current animal cruelty laws, said both the federal and provincial laws need to be reformed.

He said the federal law deals with the penalty after the fact, while provincial laws cover prevention, enforcement inspection and regulations.

"Both need updating," Carr said. "The federal laws for the penalties - especially for severe cruelty - and then the provincial laws in terms of these puppy mills and (other) situations."

************************************

N.B. SPCA uncovers animal neglect cases
Published Wednesday March 18th, 2009

SAINT JOHN - New Brunswick's SPCA uncovered three cases of apparent animal neglect over the weekend involving a total of nearly 100 animals.

In the most alarming of the three, five full-grown Boxer dogs and 30 chickens were found dead Saturday on a property in the Restigouche area.

Marguerite Diotte, Animal Protection Officer for Restigouche County, discovered the dogs in a shed with blood on their noses and mouths.

The cause of their death is still unknown and a necropsy, an autopsy for animals, has been ordered on the dogs.

Diotte said the SPCA was still working to track down the owners of the animals, but added that there are charges that could result.

In a separate incident Saturday, a total of 36 young dogs were recovered from a puppy mill in the Bathurst area after a warrant was executed with the RCMP.

Paul Melanson, chief inspector with the New Brunswick SPCA, said the dogs are in various stages of health, with some suffering from frostbite, malnutrition and bite wounds.

The dogs were Bernese Mountain, a retriever-cross, huskies and a variety of mixed breeds.

The SPCA also removed three dogs and 20 pigs over the weekend from a property in Madawaska.

Melanson said the pigs have frostbite and that one of the dogs was emaciated.