Lifetime ban for ex-dog owner

The Regina Humane Society says a Regina man has been banned for life from having animals — and fined $1 — for mistreating his dog.

The society said Lloyd Wilkinson, 56, pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to a charge under the Animal Protection Act for failing to properly care for his eightyear-old terrier mix, Patch, which suffered a broken leg on or around Dec. 1.

Though initial care was sought by Wilkinson, “he failed to provide follow-up care for Patch until RHS Animal Protection Officers stepped in,” the society said in a news release issued Thursday. “As a result, Patch suffered from lack of care, and when Mr. Wilkinson was given the option of surrendering Patch or having the dog seized, he chose to surrender Patch into the care of the RHS.”

By pleading guilty, Wilkinson avoided a jail term of up to two years and a $25,000 fine — and instead got the lifetime ban and $1 fine, said the society, which added he, “has a long past with the RHS and the Crown with cases involving animal neglect, poor living conditions, failure to provide adequate food and care as well as breaches of prohibition dating back to 1989.”

Court records indicate a second charge of wilfully causing unnecessary pain, suffering, or injury to an animal was stayed by the Crown.

In 2002, a man by the same name received a fiveyear ban on possessing any animals for five years after humane society investigators seized an emaciated Rottweiler from a home. A veterinarian later assessed the dog as being 25-per-cent underweight, Leader-Post files say.

At the man’s 2002 trial, investigators said he’d also been convicted of cruelty to animals in 2000.

Last month’s lifetime ban prompted the society’s executive director, Lisa Koch, to say the agency “is disappointed that it took over 25 years of animal suffering for a chronic animal abuser to receive such a sentence. Animal protection laws must be toughened to protect animals sooner and sentences must show that the abuse and neglect of animals is simply not acceptable.”

Diana Bishop, the society’s supervisor of animal protection, said in an interview that it learned of Wilkinson’s failure to give follow-up care from another person, then began its investigation.

She said lifetime bans are “very rare” in Saskatchewan.

“There’s only one other that I’m aware of — it was another very severe case and that was probably a half-dozen years ago.”