Couple banned from owning animals after ‘house of horrors’

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This article was published 14/05/2021 (1071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba couple has been fined $20,000 and banned from owning animals for life after animal protection officers seized dozens of sick and malnourished dogs, rabbits and birds from their Winnipeg area home.

“By any stretch of the imagination and understanding, I see no reason not to properly describe this as a house of horrors for these animals,” provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson said Thursday.

Bruce and Maureen Feaver pleaded guilty to several offences under the Animal Care Act, including keeping animals in unsanitary conditions, failing to provide adequate food and water and failing to provide medical attention.

The couple came to the attention of authorities after a basset hound belonging to them was turned in as lost to the Winnipeg Humane Society on Oct. 5, 2017.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, the dog had “significant medical issues and was deemed to be emaciated” and had not received proper medical attention following an earlier injury or illness.

The couple surrendered the dog to animal protection officers who, a day later, visited their home and found 21 dogs, 14 rabbits and 25 birds, all of them in various states of medical distress.

The animals were confined in a small space, in unsanitary conditions, without adequate lighting or ventilation and no opportunity for exercise.

Animal protection officers seized all of the animals, a number of which were euthanized, court heard.

“It seems strange that this got this far and how could it get this far is something that I can’t stop turning to,” Crown attorney Lee Turner told Eyrikson. “It seems the Feavers’ desire to have animals is much, much higher than their interest in caring for them.”

Animal protection officers inspected the couple’s home a second time on Jan. 31, 2018, and found another 10 dogs and three rabbits living in unsanitary conditions, many of them in need of medical attention. In a garage, officers stumbled over three dead dogs under a blanket on the floor. The couple said the dogs had died after being left alone in a car for three hours during the officers’ Oct. 5 visit.

In April 2018, officers seized three more dogs from the couple’s home and another three in January 2019.

“Throughout the entirety of the periods in question, the Feavers acknowledge they could have done more for the well-being of the animals, provided more care than they did, and ought to have been more forthcoming in seeking assistance when these situations got out of control,” says the agreed statement of facts.

Court heard care for the animals deteriorated as the couple struggled with their own health, financial problems and caring for Maureen Feaver’s ailing parents.

“While I accept the Feavers were doing the best they could to protect these animals, the end results were perverse,” Eyrikson said. “What this amounted to in many ways for these animals was torture.”

Eyrikson rejected a request the couple be allowed to keep up to three dogs, saying he had no faith the animals would be cared for responsibly.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca