Alberta SPCA Educational Director
Posted by Vi Hughes
on Apr 27, 2016
On Tuesday we heard from Tim Battle (pictured), the educational director of the ASPCA (Alberta Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). He gave us some background on their organization, it's history and the things that they are currently involved with.
Their organization grew out of the Edmonton and Calgary humane societies, back in the mid 1900's, when the Alberta government passed the Animal Protection Act. The act was designed to protect both domestic and wild animals, outside the boundaries of these two cities, from animal cruelty. This includes, cats, dogs, horses, cattle , other domestic livestock and wild animals.
They currently have ten peace officers throughout the province, which means each officer has a large area to cover for enforcement of the Act. They each deal with any complaints of animal cruelty within their region. They need to be experts in all kinds of animal care. Most complaints are related to chronic abuse or neglect. Last year they handled over two thousand cases, fifty percent of which related to cats and dogs, thirty percent to horses, fifteen percent to cattle and the reminder to all other animals. They were forced to seize over one thousand animals, mostly cattle and horses, in that time.
In 2012 they expanded their mandate to include co-ordination of care for animals from homes where domestic abuse is taking place, called the Alberta Alliance for Safety of Animals and People (AASAP). This consists of an alliance of over forty provincial partners from vets, to women's shelters, to groups organizing temporary foster homes for the involved pets. They had conducted a survey of victims of domestic abuse, that showed that sixty percent of victims in homes with animals, had delayed leaving the abusive situation due to fear of abuse of family pets.
Thirty percent of abusers had threatened or harmed family pets and in homes with children, eighty five percent of the children had been a witness to this threat or abuse of their pets. These threats and abuse were a powerful way for abusers to control their victims. Since then, they have helped fifty six victims and their families, to leave abusive situations sooner, by anonymously and temporarily taking in over eighty pets. The pets are returned to the victim and their family once they have a safe place to live.
Lastly, the ASPA provides educational materials for teachers and schools across the province relating to animal care, and also provides educational resources for those entering a career involving the care of animals.
Their yearly budget is two and half to three million dollars, of which one million is contributed by the provincial government. The remainder is raised though private donations.
Tim Battle, ASPCA