Woman gets jail time for abusing animals

A southern Alberta woman who abused animals was sentenced Friday to 90 days in jail for what the judge called her “substandard and criminal behaviour.”

Catherine Adams, 25, was found guilty in February of animal cruelty and of wilfully causing pain, suffering or injury to an animal.

In 2015, RCMP seized nine malnourished horses, 25 dogs and 17 birds from a property in Hanna, northeast of Calgary, that Adams shared with her mother.

Judge Judith Shriar said in Drumheller provincial court that a written submission from Adams expressing remorse after the sentencing hearing had already taken place was too little and too late.

“It seems to be that Miss Adams finally realizes what she ought to have said to support her request for a lighter sentence. Unfortunately, the conflicting evidence regarding her insight and regret contained in the (pre-sentence report) ... and in her oral submissions in August waters down somewhat the impact of her recent submissions.”

In the pre-sentence report Adams said a number of times she didn’t believe what she did was wrong, and didn’t regret or take responsibility for her actions. She did admit to being sorry if she caused the animals any distress.

“That is not exactly a full-throated acknowledgment that she caused suffering and distress to those animals by her substandard and criminal behaviour,” Shriar said. “It is hard for me to take Miss Adams’s recent submissions as wholly sincere.”

Shriar said a previous conviction in B.C. on similar charges indicates a pattern of ongoing behaviour.

The judge also sentenced Adams to two years of probation and banned her from owning animals anywhere in Canada for 17 years.