1,800 chickens found close to death
Gwillimbury, ON (CA)Incident Date: Saturday, Aug 26, 2006
Disposition: Convicted
Defendants/Suspects:
» Thi Loan Le
» Van Dong Nguyen
Two Toronto area residents have pleaded guilty to four counts of causing unnecessary suffering to animals after nearly 2,000 birds were found close to death last August.
It was case that took the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) a full year to win.
"We're always happy when someone pleads guilty, but we're upset this action took so long to happen,"said Hugh Coghill, acting chief director at the SPCA head office.
"This was a pretty unpleasant task for a dozen of our staff last summer."
Members of the SPCA were called to a property on Canal Road, just outside the Bradford-West Gwillimbury line on Aug. 29, 2006 about several chickens, turkeys and ducks being housed in two large greenhouses, and were found to be malnourished.
"The inside of the structures were incredibly hot, and many of the birds were severely debilitated," Coghill said.
"We couldn't even transport them off the site because there was fear of spreading any infection to nearby farm flocks."
Thi Loan Le, of Vaughan, and Van Dong Nguyen, of Toronto, surrendered the birds to the SPCA, and all 1,800 birds were euthanized a few days later.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Turkey Growers of Ontario and Chicken Farmers of Ontario, advised all birds should be put down and destroyed.
The Vaughan woman was ordered to pay the $2,476 in disposal fees back to the SPCA, and was bound by an order to house only 12 birds on her property.
They both appear in Bradford Court on July 12. References
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