A 23-year-old Parksville man has been banned from owning animals for 10 years after forcing a 14-month Alaskan Malamute to live in what SPCA investigators called "deplorable" conditions in a home along Corfield Street.
Nathan Boire pleaded guilty last week in Nanaimo Provincial Court to causing an animal to continue to be in distress.
SPCA senior animal protection officer Tina Heary said constables found the female dog named Effy being forced to live in a shed covered in feces and urine.
"There were countless mounds of excrement," said Heary, noting it was difficult to determine how long the dog lived in such conditions. "Some of the waste matter was old and mouldy, some were fresh piles, there was urine throughout the area... It was certainly difficult for us to walk in there without (stepping in) it."
Heary said the case illustrates "profound neglect" of an animal.
"One of her legs was swollen at a joint, angled irregularly," she said. "She was not walking on the pads of her feet, she was trying to walk on her knuckles."
Heary said the owners admitted the dog had never been to a vet and voluntarily surrendered her to the SPCA.
Heary said the dog has since underwent surgery for her untreated fractures, but there are still many unanswered questions.
“Obviously something happened to her,” she said. “There’s the element of her being in pain and suffering but also being kept in the shed with cold cement floors, feces and urine everywhere, it was dirty and filthy with a sopping wet dog bed to lie in… some things are just inexplainable.”
Heary said the dog has since been adopted out to “a loving family” in the mid-Vancouver Island region. “We appreciate that people phone us, otherwise we don’t know what is happening in the backyards and basements of properties,” she said. “We depend on others to report animal neglect or cruelty when they see it.”
To report an animal in distress including wildlife call the toll free Animal Cruelty Reporting Hotline at 1-855-622-7722.
The B.C. SPCA was created under the auspices of the provincial Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and is the only animal welfare organization in B.C. that has the authority to enforce laws relating to animal cruelty, and to recommend charges for Crown Counsel for the prosecution of individuals who inflict suffering on animals.