AAS paid for legal opinion on section 11 of the PCA Act; the requirement to issue an Offence Warning Notice before seizing

Alexander Holburn Beaudin and Lang,
Vancouver, BC

August 13, 2003

Our plain reading of section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c.372 is that if an authorized agent is of the opinion that an animal is in distress AND the owner does not take steps to relieve the animal's distress or the owner cannot be found and informed of the animal's distress, then the authorized agent many take any action it considers necessary to relieve the animal's distress. So assuming that there is no issue as to being unable to locate the owner, it is only after the owner does not promptly take steps to relieve the animal's distress, that the authorized agent can take any action to relive the animal's distress. This necessarily implies that the SPCA must give the owner an opportunity to take steps to relieve the animal's distress before the SPCA can take any action of its own to relieve the animal's distress, including taking custody of the animal.