Animal rescue charity loses appeal
SPCA seized 88 animals, some for the second time, from ‘crate after crate after crate’
SPCA officers and a veterinarian responding to a complaint on a Langley property last year were confronted by a terrible scene.
In several rooms and a garage, “crate after crate after crate” contained dogs and livestock, some two to a cage. In a small fridge that wasn’t running, officers found the decomposing bodies of two dogs wrapped in plastic. In a freezer, they found a rabbit.
Details about the conditions in which the 88 seized animals, including 45 dogs and 18 cats, were kept are reported in a recent Farm Industry Review Board decision on the fate of the animals.
The animals were seized on Sept. 19, 2016, from a registered charity, 1atatime Rescue. Its founder, Sandra Simans, appealed the decision of the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to keep the animals and find new homes for them.
On Dec. 2, the review board sided with the SPCA and ordered Simans to pay the SPCA than $81,000 in vet bills and care costs.
The lengthy decision provides a detailed account of what officers found at the property on 216th Street, including the revelation that some of the animals seized in September had been taken from Simans once before, in 2012, but had to be returned when the SPCA was not permitted to keep them.
“I think that’s the most tragic thing,” Marcie Moriarty, the SPCA chief prevention and enforcement officer, told Postmedia. “Some of these animals were seized previously. If we didn’t have to return them, they would have been in good homes all that time.”
The SPCA has recommended animal cruelty charges against Simans, which could prevent her from owning animals in the future, but is awaiting approval by Crown counsel.
“It’s dangerous for animals,” said Moriarty, adding the society does not have much hope of recovering its money.
In 2012, the SPCA seized 52 dogs and 19 cats from a Burnaby shelter operated by Simans. They eventually returned 39 dogs and 19 cats. A judge found that while the animal protection agency was within its right to seize the animals, it had defamed Simans by suggesting she may have caused injuries to a dog.
After that, said Moriarty, Simans “disappeared.” The SPCA received a complaint about the Langley property in late August.
The September seizure of 88 animals, including dogs, cats, goats, sheep, chickens and pigeons, was among the largest in SPCA history.
“The complexity of medical need was crippling,” said Moriarty. The Vancouver shelter, where many of the animals were taken for treatment, was closed to the public for several weeks for several weeks so staff could focus on the animals.
Many of the animals could be rehabilitated and, since the board’s decision in December, have gone to new homes.
Three animals, including a partly paralyzed doberman named Peanut, had to be euthanized.
To make her case, Simans told the review board many of the animals had come to the rescue in poor condition. She also said she loved the animals.
The board adjudicator found that while Simans’ “sincerity is beyond question,” she seemed “unaware of how her decisions and actions hurt her animals, even while she portrays herself as a helper to her animals.”
Moriarty said she is worried Simans will take more animals while the society is awaiting charge approval.
On Saturday, Simans said she intended to appeal the decision in Supreme Court and could not comment until the process was complete.
She said her focus is on the animals that were seized, not in taking new animals. gluymes@postmedia.com twitter.com/glendaluymes