Woman with 40 pets pleads guilty to causing animal distress
Source: EdmontonJournal.com, Jan 22, 2010
An Edmonton woman who kept more than 40 cats and dogs in filthy stacked cages pleaded guilty Thursday to causing animals to be in distress.
May Poon agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and she cannot own a pet for the rest of her life, defence lawyer Michael Sparks said.
The animals were discovered in April by a maintenance man working at Poon’s west-end home near 172nd Street and 60th Avenue.
Crown prosecutor Christian Lim said outside court that the man followed a powerful stench to a barricaded room.
In the room he found 42 cats and small dogs stacked in tiny cages, their coats caked with feces and urine.
The dogs were all small breeds, such as pomeranians, toy poodles and chihuahuas. Most of the cats were Siamese. There were three kittens.
The Humane Society seized all of the animals and spent more than $20,000 bringing them back to health.
Lim said veterinarians treated various infections, such as ear mites, and they removed 121 teeth from the animals. Seventy-one of those teeth came from just four dogs.
Veterinarians also discovered that one of the dogs had been pregnant, but that the puppies had died in her womb and begun to rot. All of the dogs made a full recovery and were later adopted. Initial reports suggested Poon was operating a puppy mill, but she denied that allegation.
Sparks said the animals had free reign of the house and were well cared for until the basement sewer backed up and Poon was forced to cage them.
Lim said the woman was running a “breeding operation,” and that a strict fine was necessary to deter others from raising animals in such conditions.
Edmonton Humane Society spokeswoman Shawna Randolf said the organization is pleased with the outcome.
“We really feel that this sends a strong message that puppy mills will not be tolerated, not by us and not by the court system, and that’s essential because we do believe that there are others out there,” she said. “A puppy mill is a commercial breeding facility where the owner is putting greed before the necessities of the animal.”
“This was a puppy mill, absolutely.”
