Another sample of Nova Scotia justice

This story made it all across Canada. $5 Fine For Woman Who Drowned Kittens

Prosecutor didn't expect to win in a trial by OfficialWire NewsDesk

WINDSOR, NOVA SCOTIA CANADA — (OfficialWire) — 03/03/09 — A Canadian animal rights group in Nova Scotia is protesting a $5 fine given to a woman who admitted to drowning two newborn kittens in a bucket of water. Sean Kelly, chairman of the investigation committee for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Halifax, Nova Scotia, told The Chronicle-Herald newspaper the group is lodging a formal complaint with the Public Prosecution Service. The case was heard in court Monday in the north-central town of Windsor, where the unidentified woman in her 50s agreed to plead guilty in exchange for the fine, he said. The woman is a welfare recipient and said she was unable to care for the 2-day-old kittens and its stray mother was in poor health. She said she called the SPCA for help last year but got none. "The SPCA is not an animal control group, unless we have a contract with a municipality," Kelly said. "We do not take in stray cats." Prosecutor Bill Fergusson agreed with a defense request for the fine, saying it was the only way to get a conviction, as he didn't expect to win in a trial, the newspaper said. Kelly said fines for cruelty to animal convictions usually range between $500 and $1,000.  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With regard to the SPCA's refusal to take in strays or take owner-surrenders (note that in Halifax, Sean Kelly recently canned the spay-neuter program and reported it to the board later), the word around Halifax was that the woman should have called a bunch of other rescues, etc. Okay, fair enough. But why couldn't the SPCA hook her up with one of them, since it was aware of the problem already? Wouldn't that sort of thing be considered part of their job?  Here's a comment somebody made on Joan's blog:  I had a cat have 3 kittens in my geenhouse. I called every shelter in HRM that I could find on the internet,etc. - must have been 25 or more. Not one of them could take them or help, including bide a while and the spca. The only help I got was from Sonya Higgins (SCARS) in Eastern Passage that lent me a live trap and gave me some advice. So we waited for the kittens to stop feeding off Mama and trapped them all. Luckily my vet clinic helped some, gave us worming meds, tested one of the kittens for feline leukemia and one of the techs took the mama and one of my friends took one of the kittens. I had 2 cats at the time, now I have 4 and a dog. It cost me shots, spay, neuter, etc., and I am not rich (who needs a vacation). How can you expect anyone to take one when they can go to a shelter and get them for $150 all included? Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong. I am in NO WAY condoning what this woman did, it was inhumane and wrong but I think it goes to many bigger problems.