This is a story reported on CBC.ca from Stratford near Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada. A 19-year-old Stratford man had received a court order banning him from possessing any animals because he had abused a cat. We don’t have details of the abuse.
Somebody reported to the police that this unnamed man was in possession of two cats, one of which was a same cat he was convicted of abusing in March of this year.
Stratford police arrested him on Tuesday after they went to his home in the south end of Stratford where they found the two cats. We are told that the cats were well cared for and had not been harmed. The cats have been taken to the local Humane Society.
Initially the man was taken into custody but is now released on bail and is scheduled to appear in court on November 4.
Comment: this is an interesting story from my point of view (and a first) for the simple fact that it begs the question how this man got hold of the cat that he had earlier abused which resulted in his conviction. Where was this cat when this man got hold of him/her? We don’t have the necessary details to answer the question but clearly the man had access to his cat and that should not have been allowed.
It is a very important question because it demonstrates that the court order banning him from being in possession of animals was improperly enforced. And there is a further question as to whether such orders are generally well enforced or not. This is critical in determining if these sorts of court orders have any value in protecting companion animals.
The truth of the matter is that it is very hard to enforce such orders because it requires the convicted person being watched almost around the clock. What if the person adopts a cat and keeps their cat inside the home full-time? How is anybody going to know that this convicted criminal banned from being in possession of animals has an animal or animals inside his home?
