Dear FML List Members,
This is my second post on the Ontario ferret situation. I believe that it
is extremely important for FML readers to attempt to have some clear
understanding on what the laws are in this province particulary, when it
comes to issues like this one. Actually, it doesn't matter where you live,
you should each become familiar with the SPCA Acts, or whatever laws in your
area govern the welfare of animals.
When I began to study for the OSPCA Agents exam, and went out on calls with
experienced Agents, one of the *first* things I was taught was that whatever
your emotional issues or personal feelings about animal welfare, those
things could not be part of this job. An Agent can only enforce the laws as
they are written but cannot make up his own versions of them as they might
wish them to be.
That's why it is so critically important in this turn of events to really
understand what constitutes cruelty and what legal grounds any one of us has
to demand the removal of any animal from its lawful and rightful owner.
Without this, there would be nothing but chaos and mayhem out there as each
of us, with our particular way of caring for our fuzzies could be reporting
the other of us and demanding the removal of our fuzzies because we are not
all in agreement with how they should be housed, or with what they should be
fed, or the indoor vs outdoor issues, etc. Seize those ferrets would be the
battle cry of the day!
Most animal protection laws are written with some very basic tenets. Is the
animals life in immediate distress and are there absolutely no other
solutions available, or have other measure have already been tried and
failed? If so then the law permits immediate removal of the animal(s).
Often times cruelty is what we prefer to call it but in truth it is a case
of the owner simply not knowing that they are breaking the law and that
their own ignorance is causing stress to the animals and they need to be
educated on what proper care is for them. For this, the law permits a
Compliance Order to be issued which details what the proper required care is
to be. If after all that, the Agent finds that the owner is not willing to
follow the directions for proper care, not willing to comply to better the
life of the animals or relieve their distress, then the law permits for an
orderly and legal removal of them.
Once the grounds for seizure exist, the owner of the animals,if present is
given a notice of seizure (or is notified by registered mail) and then has
5 days from receipt of the notice to pay the associated costs of removal
including veterinary or incidental costs the society incurs for that animal,
to relieve its suffering and provide it food,water and shelter. If this is
done in that time they MAY reclaim their animal. But whoa! Not to bring
them back to the same situation! Whatever was wrong MUST be rectified
before they go back. You need to understand also, that once a seizure has
occured the odds of an owner reclaiming the animal is mininal. If they
wouldn't spare the expense to rectify what was wrong, they suddenly don't
come up with the megabucks they'll need to reclaim it after it's been
seized. In the case of these ferrets it was highly unlikely the owner would
have launched any appeal to get back the ferrets in view of the fact he was
not complying with the order and was only to happy to be rid of the first
half that he had. Don't forget-he willingly just handed over two of them to
the Inspector! To him, having them seized was likely less of an aggravation
than the continued keeping of them. Remember its' been said he traded two
dogs for all 60 ferrets! He didn't place very much monetary value on them.
At the end of the notification period, if the owner of the animals has not
signed a voluntary surrender of those animals before then, they legally
become the property of the Society, just like your pets are all considered
your property in legal terms. A lot of people mistakenly think that animals
seized must spend their time in less than perfect conditions in an SPCA
shelter but this is not true. The Agent/Inspector has the right to allow
them to be cared for in foster care outside the shelter if it would be in
the best interest of the animals, or if the shelter simply has no room. It
is also not unusual, for *any* shelter that suddenly takes in a large number
of one specific animal in cases of seizures, to call to other shelters and
share in the housing of the animals. Happens all the time. In our area,
one of our local shelters once burned down and the animals that were not
killed in the fire were taken in by other area shelters.
Although it can be said that there are flaws in the SPCA system and certain
shelters are worse than others, in general not every shelter or every
employee of a shelter is a moron or lacks empathy for the animals in their
care. Given the chance, they will allow the public to assist them in caring
for animals such as this particular group of ferrets once they have them in
their care.
My original post did have quotes from those sections in the OSPCA Act that
were relevant to this case but it bounced back due to the extra length of
it. If anyone would like me to send them a copy of those sections, post me
privately and I will gladly send them to you. It helps explain our
frustration at what occured and how it was portrayed.
Meanwhile, we are still committed to keeping a cooperative network of caring
individuals (mini shelters, foster care, call it what you like) to be
available to help any ferret in need in southern Ontario, any time help is
needed. Contact us if you need to.
And lastly, please, the next time a request is posted asking for people such
as ourselves to respond to a "distress" situation..two things to keep in
mind. Be careful to represent it accurately and be prepared to allow people
to do what you have asked them to do. If listmembers are asked to call a
particular place to arrange to pick the ferrets up from directly and take
the trouble to do this, accept the help you asked for.
Sincerely,
The Kuruziak Family (Mary and Nick)and their 37-fur & 3-feather kids.
Very caring Canadian ferret advocates from Ontario!
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2176]
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