OSPCA letter threatens to ‘dispose of’ 71 rescue dogs unless $100K paid

Animal welfare agency says the letter used "standard form wording" that dog owners misinterpreted as a threat.

Thestar.com
Sept. 17, 2015
By Marco Chown Oved

Seventy-one rescue dogs might be killed Friday if the owners of an international dog rescue operation can’t come up with more than $100,000 in fines, according to a letter from the OSPCA.

The letter from the province’s animal welfare agency demands $104,746.66 from the Laika Fund for Street Dogs, a North Bay area animal charity, and threatens to “dispose of” the 71 dogs seized in July if payment isn’t received by Friday.

But it’s a false alarm, according to the Ontario Society for the Protection of Animals, which told the Star its letter used “standard form wording” and the agency does not actually want immediate payment, nor will it euthanize the dogs until an appeal hearing has ruled.

“I have no idea why they would send a letter that they don’t mean,” said lawyer Terrance Green, who is representing Rebecca and Randy Ashworth, owner/operators of the charity, which brings abused dogs from war-torn countries to Canada for adoption.

Green says the Animal Care Review Board (ACRB) ordered the Newmarket-based OSPCA to inform the Ashworths of the mounting boarding and medical bill, but that the letter they sent went beyond what was called for.

“They had to send a balance of account to show that the dollars are still adding up, but they have no right to dispose of any dogs until the ACRB hearing is finished because we’re challenging their right to even go in and take the dogs,” Green said.

The letter lists $33,405.34 in veterinary bills, $36,630 in boarding costs and $15,604.44 for the North Bay Humane Society, part of a $104,746.66 total bill.

“The Society may dispose of the animal(s) WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE if such costs are not paid within five (5) business days of the receipt of this letter,” it states.

OSPCA inspector and communications officer Brad Dewar said the agency used a form letter to inform the Ashworths of their total bill.

“We don’t just write up a letter saying ‘FYI: this is how much you owe,’” he said. “Wording that’s used in it is general terms ... I can’t speak to how it’s interpreted.”

In any case, Dewar says the dogs cannot be adopted out or euthanized until the ACRB makes a ruling on ownership - either transferring the dogs to the OSPCA or giving them back to the Ashworths.

“Nothing can happen to those dogs until a decision is made by the board,” Dewar said.

However, one of the Ashworths’ dogs has already been put down, on the direction of a veterinarian as “the most humane option.”

The apparent mixup still has the Ashworths concerned for the fate of their beloved rescues from Iraq, Afghanistan and other war-torn countries, which were seized during a morning raid at the Ashworths’ farm in Trout Creek, Ont., just south of North Bay, in July.

“I’m concerned that they’re going to - or already have - done something with my dogs. I just don’t trust them,” said Rebecca Ashworth.

The Ashworths say many of the problems cited by the OSPCA were pre-existing conditions; many of the rescued dogs were disabled after surviving abusive situations and were under the care of a veterinarian since arriving in Canada.

“We are hoping that after we present our evidence, it will be clear that they never should have taken our dogs in the first place,” she said.

The OSPCA, a registered charity that receives more than $10 million in public funding from the province every year, would not confirm where the dogs are being held.

Green said that legally the OSPCA must go before a judge or justice of the peace to keep custody of animals after a seizure, and only the judge can determine if the owners must pay costs.

Any attempt to adopt out or euthanize the dogs before the hearing has concluded is premature, Green said, though he alleged the OSPCA has done it to his clients in the past.

“That’s the tactic they use: they bill you to death, and they keep the dogs,” said Green.

The Ashworth’s appeal hearing continues on Oct. 5.