Alberta non-profit lobbying for changes to animal protection laws, greater enforcement powers

The Alberta SPCA gave CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson a look at how more than a dozen dogs who were found starving are recovering.

An Alberta animal rescue organization is lobbying for greater legal powers in cases of abuse amid what it says is an outdated system for enforcing animal protection.

Leanne Niblock, the executive director of the Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), said her organization is in contact with the ministry of agriculture and irrigation about opening up and updating the Animal Protection Act.

The group is looking to specify the language around court orders that could stop reoffending cases of animal neglect, such as redefining what “distress” means in the Act.

Niblock said those changes are long overdue in the wake of her officers, who can’t enforce the Criminal Code, needing better recourse for preventing animal abuse.

Late last year, for example, the Alberta SPCA responded to a call about 15 emaciated dogs. The non-profit group’s officers seized the dogs and laid charges.

“Their bones were sticking out of their skin,” Niblock told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.

“A dog doesn’t starve overnight. Takes a while. So these dogs had been in distress for quite a while.”

Those dogs, who joined the 111 animals currently in the SPCA’s care, are doing much better, Niblock says. In a given year, the SPCA may look into more than 3,000 calls.

In this case, her organization felt the need to write a community impact statement about the incident to impart its seriousness.

“We really want to use every tool that we can think of to ensure the justice system understands the importance of these files and the impact they have, not just on the animals, but on our community as a whole.”

In another example of one high-profile case involving horses, the SPCA struggled to enforce a lifetime ownership ban against the accused, meaning a civil court order was necessary for SPCA officers to intervene without delay in repeat cases.

“It’s really unfortunate, the folks that know how to work the system definitely work the system … We want to be able to go and inspect places like other shelters and breeders proactively, and not wait for a call to come in,” Niblock explained.

She said the group has been working closely with Crown prosecutors, stakeholders and the Alberta government to tighten up what court orders dictate in those cases.

Agriculture ministry press secretary Callum Reid told CTV News the minister was “engaged in positive conversations and is looking into possible changes in the coming months” when asked about opening up the Animal Protection Act.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson