$15 a day to care for budgie 'excessive': judge

Thursday, June 4, 2009

© AgMedia Inc.

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Charging $15 a day to care for birds and small animals such as ferrets, quail and budgies is “excessive,” says an Ontario Superior Court Justice.

Justice William Jenkins wrote the comment in his May 21 decision on the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ efforts to recover costs of caring for animals it seized from an Elgin County man in 2006.

The judgment requires Steve Straub to pay the Society $3,205.75 – only a fraction of the $168,746.86 that the animal welfare organization claimed it was owed.

“I do not believe that a cost of $15 a day for the care of each of the 25 ferrets, 16 quail and 12 budgies is reasonable,” he wrote. “A charge of $450 a month to pasture or even board a pony or a donkey is also excessive.”

Kristin Williams, a spokesperson for the Ontario SPCA, couldn’t speak to whether the organization will challenge the amount awarded. She calls the size of the award “challenging.”

“The Ontario SPCA incurred very severe costs as they are related to the care of the animals,” she says, and the charitable organization will have to make up the difference through community donations.

Williams says recent changes to the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act allow judges to issue restitution orders when hearing an animal cruelty case and will help to reduce the organization’s legal costs in future. “So that we no longer have to go through the civil process” to recoup expenses, she explains.

Steve Straub wouldn’t comment. His lawyer is still speaking with the Society about the decision and the payment.

The Society sued Straub and his father, John, to recoup expenses involved in seizing and caring for 17 ponies, eight donkeys, 25 ferrets, 16 quail, four cockatiels, 12 budgies, two doves, two finches and one pheasant.

Court filings show all but a handful of the animals, seized because of concerns for their health, were under the Society’s care for less than four months.

In his decision, Justice Jenkins supported the Society’s seizure of the animals and called for the repayment of documented expenses including Society agent Rebecca Tanti’s mileage as well as trucking, veterinary and farrier bills. He challenged the Society’s costs for boarding animals, noting it failed to produce evidence to justify these during the trial.

He dismissed action against John Straub, Stephen’s father, because of lack of evidence supporting the Society’s claims that he was a custodian of the animals.

Jenkins awarded the Society $5,028, less $1,763.40 recovered when birds and animals were sold. BF