Seagulls kicked, humane officer assaulted
Barrie, ON (CA)Incident Date: Thursday, Jul 17, 2008
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: man (name undisclosed}
An officer with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) was attacked trying to stop a man from kicking seagulls at Heritage Park, Thursday night.
OSPCA officer Mark Beauchamp responded to the complaint around 5:30 p. m. by bicycle, and witnesses pointed the 39-year-old suspect out to him right away.
"When I approached the man, he said that he was a conservation authority officer," Beauchamp said. "I didn't believe that because I don't know any conservation officer that would kick an animal."
When Beauchamp calmly explained to the man that assaulting animals was an offence, he said the man became violent, throwing a rock at him.
"Then, he grabbed me by the bulletproof vest, and then I had to use my use-of-force training to defend myself," Beauchamp said, noting that he quickly called Barrie police for help. "I was assaulted three times before police arrived, but they did arrest the man."
The man was arrested and charged with assault and cruelty to animals.
"Unfortunately, one of the animals was injured from being kicked," said Beauchamp, who's held his position nearly two years. "It's been taken to the wildlife centre (in Midland) and will be assessed to see if it can be rehabilitated, otherwise it would have to be put down."
Beauchamp said this isn't the first time he's endured an assault from someone abusing an animal.
"It's part of this job and we have a passion for protecting the animals, so sometimes we get hurt doing it," he said. "In Simcoe County, this kind of thing happens to us about once or twice a week."
"Usually the person hurting the animal isn't a nice person to people either, from our experience," said Melissa Bainbridge, spokeswoman for the Barrie OSPCA. "All our officers are always on guard, knowing a person could get violent." References
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