Over 40 animals neglected
East Gore, NS (CA)Incident Date: Friday, Oct 12, 2007
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Sharon Orr
A woman who owned more than 40 animals that were seized this fall from her East Gore property is trying to retrieve the menagerie.
But authorities plan to charge Sharon Orr with animal cruelty for the way she was treating goats, ducks, geese, chickens, dogs and rabbits living in makeshift shelters on her land off Barr Settlement Road.
"I've tried everything I can think of to find out what happened to them," Ms. Orr said Monday night.
"They came in to where I was living and took everything I owned. . . . I'm at my wits' end."
Officers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seized the animals on Oct. 12.
"I think they've all been euthanized, I really do," Ms. Orr said.
She said the animals weren't mistreated.
"To me, wilful mistreatment is you go out there and you beat the you-know-what out of your animals, or wanton cruelty."
Ms. Orr said she had started to build a lean-to pole barn to house the animals through the winter.
"They would create their own heat," she said.
The 44-year-old woman, who works as a flag holder for road construction crews, was relying on the animals for food.
"The goats were for milk and meat, the chickens were for eggs, the geese was just to let me know if anybody was around, and the ducks were for meat," she said. "They were supposed to feed me this winter."
Ms. Orr had been living on the property in a camper trailer since May, but she moved to a friend's place in Lower Sackville when the weather got cold.
"I was there every day feeding them," she said.
Neighbours reported the situation to the SPCA, said Judith Gass, past president of the provincial organization.
"We started getting calls from people who said, 'This is out of control,' " Ms. Gass said. "So we went down and visited her about three times over the summer."
Investigators told Ms. Orr she had to improve her animal husbandry.
"When we first went down there, the goats were just sort of tied to trees," Ms. Gass said.
In a shed, investigators found a young goat that had died of heat exhaustion, she said.
"And the rabbits were in cages on the ground, but they couldn't stay outside like that forever."
The shelters were not adequate for the animals, Ms. Gass said.
"She just didn't seem to be able to look after them and they were dying off," she said. "We were getting calls from people who were getting a little frantic, saying the chickens were running all over the road and getting run over."
The animals are now living at a farm and the SPCA plans to charge Ms. Orr with causing cruelty to animals.
"We're not going to be giving her the animals back and we are going to be prosecuting her because we don't want her to be able to have animals," Ms. Gass said.
"Really, what we're interested in is getting a ban on ownership."
There was no water or electricity at the site, Ms. Gass said.
"Your farm doesn't consist of your travel trailer," she said. "There didn't seem to be any facilities of any sort there." References
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