Kamloops Daily News Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Dog breeder’s property described by officer in animal negligence trial

By Robert Koopmans
Daily News Staff Reporter

The trial of a Barriere dog breeder charged with neglecting his animals continued Monday with testimony from one of the SPCA constables who searched the man’s property.

Cathy Woodward, a senior animal protection officer, was called to testify at the provincial court trial of Bill Pieper.

Pieper is charged with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and permitting an animal to be in distress. The charges stem from the SPCA’s attendance at Pieper’s East Barriere lake road property in January and July 2005.

His trial got underway in October 2006, but was adjourned. The trial is scheduled to last four more days.

Woodward told the judge she, another SPCA officer and an RCMP officer attended Pieper’s property on July 27, 2004, to execute search warrants.

She told the judge she looked inside numerous outbuildings and saw several dogs.

Most of the outbuildings were in poor condition, dark and smelled strongly of ammonia, she said. One of the gates was crudely made, with exposed nails poking through.

The officer said water dishes were evident, but not completely filled. She could see no sign of food dishes, although bags of food were present in at least one of the buildings.

“It appeared the dogs had dug through some of the plywood flooring, into the ground. It looked like it might collapse.”

As well, Woodward said the dogs were dirty, with some showing signs of feces and dirt matted into their fur.

Two of the dogs had cherry eye, an inflammation of a dog’s inner eyelid.

Pieper owned, by his own count, 48 English mastiffs at the time of the investigation, as well as a number of cats. The dogs were offered for sale to the public at $1500 each, or $2500 if the animal was for show and breeding purposes.

More than 30 animals were seized by the SPCA due to concerns about their well-being.