Woman who left dog in trunk of car on freezing winter day gets probation

Canine left in vehicle on two occasions in frigid temperatures

A Niagara woman who left a dog in the trunk of a car on two occasions in frigid temperatures has received a suspended sentence and placed on probation for 12 months.

“You do need to appreciate that offences like this are serious in the sense that dogs and other pets are vulnerable and rely on people charged with taking care of them to take care of them properly,” Judge Deborah Calderwood told Gaynor Batchelor-fjellner.

“The circumstances may well have been terrifying for the dog, but it also may have threatened the dog’s well-being.”

The 50-year-old woman pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal at an earlier date and appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Monday for sentencing.

In January 2021, Niagara Regional Police were dispatched to Niagara Street in St. Catharines in regards to a complaint that a dog was in the trunk of a parked car.

Police had also received a similar complaint involving the same vehicle a few weeks earlier.

Officers searched the area but were unable to locate the vehicle.

Police later responded to a complaint of a dog in the trunk of a car parked on Buckley Avenue in Niagara Falls.

Given the multiple calls from the public, the freezing temperatures, the dog being left in a confined space with no access to food and water, and no place for the animal to urinate or defecate, police formed grounds that the owner of the vehicle had caused unnecessary suffering to the animal and she was arrested.

The dog was removed from her custody.