Dog breeder loses appeal of SPCA seizure near Wolfville

An appeal board has rejected a Kings County dog breeder's appeal of the seizure of 35 dogs from her property last month.

The three-person panel upheld the seizure in a ruling handed down late Jan. 2, a release from the SPCA said.

Karin Robertson said at the appeal hearing that the SPCA has been inspecting her property for five years and only started having an issue with her after a couple made a false post about her business on Facebook in July, which subsequently went viral.

She said that in August she surrendered some of her dogs to the SPCA because she was having difficulties selling them, and was working hard to comply with orders issued by the society in September. She said that she reduced the number of dogs by more than half and cleaned her kennels at least twice daily.

The SPCA said it had concerns with several of the dogs at

Robertson's property during a visit on Sept. 18 and alleges there were stacked crates and unsanitary conditions. It issued a list of compliance orders, and then tacked more orders on during follow-up visits.

Inspector JoAnne Landsburg said at the appeal she wrote Robertson a letter near the end of November, asking her to surrender more of her dogs, but when she didn't, a search warrant was obtained and the dogs were seized Dec. 10.

Robertson has been charged with failing to comply with all reasonable directions of an SPCA inspector or peace officer and with causing an animal to be in distress.