stouffviue suntribune thursday june 22 2006 7 ospca private police force protesters charge by teresa latchford staff writer protesters are calling the ontario spca a private police force and demanding its powers be taken away due to misuse a group of 25 protesters gathered in front of the ontario spcas head office in whitchurchstouffville this month handing out flyers stating the government not the humane society should be in charge of enforcing laws to protect animals and to prosecute offenders one of the protesters was richmond hill resident sunny reuter who went on a 10day vacation and put her dog arko into a schomberg boarding kennel until she returned the 1212yearold rare akbash breed was seized from the kennel during an investigation by the ontario spca in 2003 arko was then euthanized by the organization on the order of its staff veterinarian before ms reuter returned they said he was lame when they found him ms reuter said he very well could have been he was getting older but that is not the point ms reuter claimed arko received a clean bill of health from a vet 90 days earlier and the dog was tagged with her vets phone number to make matters worse ms reuter found herself under investigation for ani mal cruelty arko was taken to guelph where a necropsy proved he had not been abused and was a healthy old dog she added all charges against her were dropped but she still had questions to which no one at the ontario spca would answer all i want is accountability and transparency she said we removed her dog because it flat out needed medical care ontario spca executive director mike draper said it couldnt even stand during our investigation the investigation was launched on ms reuter because investigators were not sure if the dogs condi tion was caused by her or the kennel an order is usually written up outlining changes needed to relieve a pets distress and given to the pet owner after an investigation if the orders are not fol lowed the animal will be seized for its own welfare these can be appealed to the animal care review board mr draper explained but in this case medical attention was not enough to relieve arkos distress so the vet decided it was in best for the animal to be euthanized a media release headed by south bruce peninsula mayor carl noble states protesters believe the chronically underfunded organization has to rely on publicized ani mal seizures and criminal code charges to sustain itself we raise awareness by letting people know what we are accomplishing mr draper said awareness raises funds and is a deterrence their powers need to be softened mr noble said agents and inspectors have ho one to tell them they cant do this and in many cases if they feel they have done wrong they drop the charges with no compensa tion for the owner the province should send an overseer to assess policies and operations and make changes he said he would also like to see a governmentappointed medi ator assigned to protect pet owners under investigation it is the government that prosecutes the charges not the ontario spca and it is the crown attorney who drops charges mr draper said as for the police enforcing animal cruelty laws they dont have the funding man power or desire he said if we werent here to pro tect the animals who will mr draper asked pointing out a few protesters is just the cost of doing business for information on the efforts to reform the animal cruelty act email reformanimalcrueltyacthotmailcom for more information about the ontario spca visit wwwospcaca this once a year sale starts friday june 22 at 9am sharp many items are unique and limited in supply fresh new pots nursery plants flowers have arrived this sale includes everything save up to soils chemic plants pots fertilizers furniture pine ridge pickerings 2215 brock rd n 9056835952 monfri 99 pm saturday 96 pm sunday 96 pm pineridi pine ridge unionville 4038 hwy 7 9054792480 monfri 99 pm saturday 96 pm sunday 96 pm dont let your dreams go up in smoke quitting saves more than your life calculate how at cancerca srsmokershelpline canadian cafvcft sooety 1 877 5135333 thismessagebfoughttoyouasacomniunseiwottebxrxinrvswvtnlkne ktkb ss v womens ehions i 137 main st n markham 9 9052943882 wwwpeppertreeca 9 open 7 days a week holidays wm 7 i opefn saturday july 1st 10am5piv1