PROTECTING ANIMALS
Animal Protection Act changes that came into effect in September have the potential to increase the workload for animal welfare workers. An SPCA official says with the enhanced rules, it’s vital agencies have proper staffing and standardized training.
With five full-time animal protection officers covering all of Saskatchewan outside the three largest cities, responding every month to an average of 48 to 50 cases of reported animal distress, neglect or cruelty has been manageable, the Animal Protection Services of Saskatchewan’s executive director says.
“We can always use more resources to be able to do all of the things that are now available to us ... specifically speaking to the enhanced inspection rights that we have,” Don Ferguson said. “It would certainly be beneficial if we had additional resources to be able to do more of that.”
By more resources, he means more officers. Ferguson does double duty as manager and out in the field, “pressed into service” when a full-time officer is sick.
Since the new Animal Protection Act came into force in mid-september, the volume of complaint calls has remained about the same, he said.
The new legislation defines animal distress or abandonment and increases the inspection powers of animal protection officers. It also makes corrective action orders legally enforceable. Ferguson said the APSS has already issued “a number” of the orders to people who were not willing to comply with the new legislation, and it has worked.
The enhanced enforcement powers could increase officers’ workloads, said Frances Wach, executive director of the Saskatchewan SPCA.
“Given the expanded definition of distress, the new act requires the need to write corrective orders that may be appealed and there’s going to be increased recordkeeping requirements for animal protection agencies,” she said.
Wach said she wants agencies to have a “proper staff complement” and standardized ongoing training for animal protection officers.
There is potential for some increased work, but whether there are enough protection officers to deal with the existing caseloads “depends (on) who you ask,” said the Ministry of Agriculture’s chief veterinary officer, Dr. Betty Althouse.
“I think right now, the response times are generally acceptable. The high-priority cases can be responded to quickly. Some of those that are vaguer or there’s just not a lot of detail on the report, or it seems like the conditions may be declining and it’s not an emergency, may take a little longer to get to. But the urgent ones are responded to within a day to three in most cases,” Althouse said.
Ferguson said they respond to the majority of calls within two to three days.
Althouse said the ministry has increased funding for APSS, which provides services to parts of Saskatchewan outside Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert. Those cities have their own animal protection agencies.
All animal protection agencies will also be required to report their case statistics to the province.
The legislation requires veterinarians to immediately report cases with reasonable grounds to believe an animal is being abused or is in distress. It defines an “abandoned animal” as one that is not picked up by its owner within four days of an agreed upon date.
It allows officers to inspect any vehicle or place where animals are kept for sale, adoption, hire or slaughter — except for a private home — without a warrant. This includes boarding kennels, shelters, rescues, vet clinics, groomers, slaughter houses and zoos.
Right now, the response times are generally acceptable. The high-priority cases can be responded to quickly.