Devon The Tortoise Was Stolen

So, jumping the gun, the Alberta SPCA contravened the very act they are gifted by the government to enforce and stole the tortoise.  Yes, I say “stole’ because the Animal Protection Act states very clearly under what circumstances a peace officer under this act may seize an animal.

A link to the act is here….read it for yourselves.

http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/A41.pdf

The Peace Officers presented Mr. Gustafson with a seizure notice and proceeded to capture the tortoise.  Mr. Gustafson demanded to know why they were taking Devon and they replied, “to determine if the tortoise is in distress or not”.  They had been told by a visitor that is was.

If you read section 3 of The Act, you will notice it says,

Powers of peace officer

3(1) If an animal is in distress and

(a) the owner or person in charge of the animal does not

forthwith take steps that will relieve its distress,

The Officers who took the tortoise that day admitted they didn’t know if the animal was in distress or not. 

The Act only allows a peace officer to seize an animal if it IS in distress, NOT to take it and test it and drill holes in its shell to SEE IF it is in distress. 

This is exactly what the Alberta SPCA officers did.

In addition, paragraph (a) states: ….does not forthwith take steps that will relieve its distress,

This means the owner must be given a notice and a time frame to correct a suspected infraction of the act before the Officers can seize an animal.

One of the same officers who stole the tortoise that day attended the GuZoo to inspect Devon the tortoise only four months previously.  On site at that time it was agreed by the officers that the tortoise indeed had a heat source, UV source and proper food and was in adequate health.  The Officers indicated there was no distress on the part of the tortoise and no action was ordered to be taken.  I was there, I witnessed this whole charade. 

Then four months later the officers seize the tortoise (based solely on the word of an anti-Guzoo spy .  Kind of suspicious in our minds. 
Mr. Gustafson, for the sake of non-confrontation, relented to allow the SPCA to take Devon to the Calgary Zoo for examinations, so long as it didn’t go past the day they promised to return it.  Well, it did.  On the day the SPCA failed to return the tortoise as initially promised, Mr. Gustafson called the police.  He told the RCMP he wanted the SPCA charged with theft.  The RCMP Sergeant called the SPCA officer named on the seizure notice…and guess what?  The tortoise was returned the next day by a different peace officer we had never seen before.  It would seem the officers who stole it didn’t have the fortitude to admit defeat…they let some lower ranking officer do their dirty work.

The SPCA knew they didn’t have a leg to stand on, they knew full well they didn’t follow proper protocol.  Perhaps they thought we wouldn’t call their bluff. 

All the Anti-Guzoo people blamed the Animal Protection Act and its poor definitions, when it fact, the tortoise was returned because it never should have been taken in the first place. 

 To this day, we have no examination report, no test results, nothing from the ASPCA about the health of our tortoise.  (Oh, they did fax us a recommended care protocol for the tortoise). 

Was Devon in distress?  Obviously not.  Was Devon stolen?  Most definitely, and Ken Dean knew it all along.  Once the RCMP got involved they were sure quick to return it.