CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #824 Rating: 3.0 out of 5
Animal neglect - 9 dogs Calgary, AB (CA)Incident Date: Friday, Jan 3, 2003
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Trent Arthur Wold
A 38-year-old man who kept nine dogs in squalid conditions in a small holiday trailer parked on a roadside near Cremona has been fined $2,000 and banned from owning animals for 10 years.
Trent Arthur Wold pleaded guilty in Didsbury provincial court Monday to a charge of causing distress to animals under the Animal Protection Act. Police responded to the trailer on Jan. 3, 2003, after a neighbour heard animals in distress, court heard.
Officers found nine dogs in the trailer, including two puppies in a small cage. There was animal waste throughout the enclosure, SPCA special constable Travis Lund testified.
"There was feces all over the floor, benches, the bed," said Lund. "There was no water or food to be seen. The two pups were kept in a small kennel with no ability to move. They basically looked like they had Parkinson's disease. They had no ability to stand up."
A cooler outside the trailer contained the remains of two other dogs. Officers had to destroy five of the nine dogs soon after the discovery.
Duty counsellor Brian Forestell told Judge Bruce Fraser that Wold was living with the dogs in the filthy trailer. "In his own mind, he didn't think he was being cruel," said Forestell. "The dogs were like family to him." References |