MPP Ted Arnott has been asked by two Wellington County women to have the province provide oversight to the operation of the OSPCA.
Paulette Young, of Elora, and Erica Longman, of the Hillsburgh area went to Arnott’s office on the afternoon of Aug. 27.
Young said she is part of a group that is trying to stop the slaughter of animals at the Newmarket Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Young agreed there is some irony that the OSPCA, which toppled the hierarchy of the Toronto Humane Society and then saw the case against the THS officials tossed out of court. “They both went to extremes,” she said. The THS was not euthanizing any animals, and the OSPCA seems euthanasia happy.”
Conservative MPP Frank Klees started the ball rolling in the legislature.
On his web site, in a notice titled What Went Wrong with the OSPCA, Klees wrote, “For those who may have missed the story, the OSPCA announced that because of an outbreak of ‘ringworm,’ a decision was made to euthanize all 350 of its sheltered animals. While I don’t pretend to be an expert on ringworm, as a former pet owner I’ve never known of this to be a deadly disease.”
Klees added, “I began to make calls to local veterinarians to get their opinion, and every one of them reacted in the same way. They were shocked to hear of the OSPCA’s mass euthanasia plan, they all expressed surprise that they had not been contacted to ask for help if indeed there was a crisis developing at the shelter, and to the person, said they would gladly donate their time and resources to help save the lives of these animals.
All agreed that not only is it unnecessary to euthanize an animal for ringworm, it is simply wrong.
Young said the Newmarket OSPCA managed to euthanize 99 cats and dogs under the complaint of ringworm before the slaughter was stopped. She was particularly upset because a dog that had been listed as adoptable was one of those that was put down, and she believes that was sheer spite.
Young said, “We definitely need someone to oversee” organizations like the OSPCA.
Klees agrees with that sentiment. His statement in the legislature on May 21 was, “I am also calling for legislative changes to achieve two objectives: First, to eliminate the inherent flaw of the current legislation which mandates the OSPCA to provide animal shelter services on the one hand, and on the other, makes the OSPCA, which is a charitable organization, responsible for policing animal welfare.
“I do not believe that a charity should have policing powers – not over itself or any other organization. The OSPCA should have to decide if it’s a charity providing shelter services for animals, or if it wants to be in the business of inspection and enforcement.
Next, he added “Finally, we need effective provincial oversight of animal welfare agencies. It’s unacceptable for a minister of the crown to plead that he’s incapable of intervening in a matter as serious as the one playing itself out at the York Region (Newmarket) OSPCA.
He concluded, “The opposition parties are willing to work with the government to achieve these objectives, and we’re hopeful the government will agree to work with us to get this right.”
Young said an OSPCA employee decided to leave when the euthanizing began, and save a kitten. Reports to the media then put a halt to the euthanization, and Young added that checks revealed there was no outbreak of ringworm. She said a veterinarian took in animals from the OSPCA and “none of the 102 animals had ringworm.
Arnott asked Young if ringworm is highly contagious and she agreed that it is.
However, she noted that the Durham OSPCA has hand only two cases of ringworm in ten years, and “euthanizing them didn’t even cross their minds.”
Young presented Arnott with several pages of signatures, and noted that there are up to 40,000 on an internet petition.
She also said, “Every MPP that’s Liberal, the petition was lost or misplaced, or filled in the wrong way. She said she contacted Guelph MPP Liz Sandals about euthanizing of animals at the University of Guelph after student work on them, but “got no response.”
Longman, who is trained in animal rescue, cited instances where it took weeks for the OSPCA to act to rescue animals, and said, “I’m not convinced the OSPCA is equipped to respond to any situation.”
Arnott asked if the request to him was to present the petition in the legislature. Young said it is.
She said, “What we’re doing is fighting an organization that depends on donations in order to function – and the focus is on money.”
Arnott told the women he would be pleased to present their petition, thus getting it on the official record.
