AAS obtained legal opinion on the requirement for the SPCA to issue an Offence Warning Notice and permit the owner to take steps to relieve the alleged distressful conditions, before the SPCA is permitted to seize:
Alexander Holburn
Beaudin and Lang, Our plain reading of section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c.372 is that if an authorized agent is of the opinion that an animal is in distress AND the owner does not take steps to relieve the animal's distress or the owner cannot be found and informed of the animal's distress, then the authorized agent may take any action it considers necessary to relieve the animal's distress. So assuming that there is no issue as to being unable to locate the owner, it is only after the owner does not promptly take steps to relieve the animal's distress, that the authorized agent can take any action to relieve the animal's distress. This necessarily implies that the SPCA must give the owner an opportunity to take steps to relieve the animal's distress before the SPCA can take any action of its own to relieve the animal's distress, including taking custody of the animal.
Regina vs Ann Brown:
Provincial Court of British Columbia, Surrey, BC, May 25, 2000, file
number 104289: Precedent ruling that the SPCA MUST give the owner an
opportunity to correct the alleged deficiencies before obtaining a
warrant to seize
Judge N.G. MacDonald, after
excluding the evidence, acquitted Ms Brown
From court transcript lines 34 to 41: Judge MacDonald says,
"...instead of contacting the owner to give the owner an opportunity to
relieve the distress in the animals, the officers went to the Justice of
the Peace under Section 13 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act
and sought and obtained a warrant based on the Information to Obtain the
Warrant."
Animal Advocates has documented many instances of the SPCA obtaining warrants and then making seizures of animals without first issuing an Offence Warning Notice, and of one instance (known to us) of the SPCA seizing a healthy mare and foal without a warrant at all! January 2007 - A QC criminal lawyer told AAS that the government knows that the SPCA has been "running roughshod over people" and "is being reined in." That is borne out by recent SPCA press releases where it is always carefully stated that the owner of the seized animals was given warnings. AAS obtained legal opinion on the SPCA "having to" return animals to abusers if it is paid its "costs":
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