Horse owner says SPCA on wrong path

Chantelle BOWLES/Langley Times

Shirley Parsons is angry at the SPCA, which came to her home insisting that her horses were in distress. She hired a vet and a farrier to prove the animals are fine, but she says one died as a result of its handling by the SPCA.
By Chantelle Bowles
Times Reporter
Mar 23 2007

On Thursday, March 8, Shirley Parsons was at home recovering from knee replacement surgery, when she looked out her front window to see people walking through her front gate.

“My bouvier went nuts!” said Parsons.

She walked out with her walker only to find out they were from the SPCA.

They said they were there “because ‘we have horses in distress’,” Parsons told The Times.

Parsons, 60, responded by saying she wanted to see a search warrant and on the following day, they came back again with the warrant and the police. The presence of the police made Parsons even more angry.

“What am I going to do? Chase them off with a stick,” said Parsons, referring to her physical limitations, due to the walker.

Parsons said the police officer was also confused as to why he was needed at her residence.

Because of her surgery, Parsons hasn’t been able to take care of her horses by herself, so her friend Petra Smith had been helping. Parsons said the only reason they were investigating her was because of Smith.

Smith has had past confrontations with the SPCA. Parsons believes someone from the SPCA overheard a phone conversation at Country Feeds supply store, heard the name Petra Smith and went to investigate.

“If she hadn’t gone down there and used her name they never would have come to my house.”

Parsons was given 48 hours to clean up her property but said because of the weather on the previous weekend she didn’t get a chance. She and her husband moved into the home in December of last year and Parsons is worried about what her neighbours are thinking of her.

She said that during one of the visits, the SPCA had eight horses in her backyard. One of the horses was spooked and knocked over her 35-year-old mare, Copper. That, Parsons said, is when she lost it.

It was at this time that many of the horses started eating the alfalfa hay in Parsons’ yard. She says the SPCA personnel present said that meant the horses were starving.

Her response was that the horses were eating the hay because it is one of the best kinds of hay available.

“If I had liver on one side of the plate and candy on the other, I’m going to eat the candy,” said Parsons.

Later that evening, Copper went down in her stable. Alarmed, Parsons called the vet who came out immediately.

“That horse is now dead,” said Parsons.

She added the vet told her that it was stress on the heart, and was probably due to the blow she took earlier in the day.

Another condition the SPCA gave Parsons was that she had to call a vet to examine the horses. But she said that she wouldn’t be using their vet.

When the vet from the SPCA examined her horses, Parsons said he wasn’t at all professional, showed a lack of compassion and used the same gloves for each horse.

Other concerns raised by the SPCA included dirty horses, skinny horses, horses with lice, no mats in horse stalls and not enough feed for the animals.

She complied and attempted to address most of these concerns. She also scheduled a farrier to come in and examine the horses’ feet.

On Monday, March 12, the deadline for cleaning up her yard, Parsons had a doctor’s appointment and left strict instructions not to let anyone in, unless she or her husband were home.

They didn’t come, instead they came back on March 13 and again wanted in. But because Parsons wasn’t feeling well, she refused to let them in without another warrant.

After calling about 10 vets who all refused to come out when they heard the SPCA was involved, Parsons said she called Dr. David J. Paton, who came out right away.

According to Parsons, Paton is one of the most recognized names in the business and has a stellar reputation.

On March 15, the farrier and vet came to examine the horses and both reported that nothing was wrong and that the horses were not in distress.

Paton stated in a letter that the horses had good feet, good food, good water and proper stables. This was the first time Paton had examined these horses.

Jennifer Pickard of Iron Horse Farrier Services wrote that she had recently examined the horses and trimmed their hooves. She did so again, stating so in the letter.

These two letters cost Parsons about $400.

According to Parsons, who has had her horses since September 2006, a horse’s weight is on a scale of one to nine. One being for skinny, starving horses and nine being for overweight horses.

The SPCA reported that one of the horses had purtruding hips, he scored a six, one of the highest scores of Parsons’ horses.

She also contacted a lawyer who told her that she didn’t need to comply with all of the orders given by the SPCA. If the order didn’t have anything to do with her horses, such as the one to clean up her yard, she wasn’t obligated to follow it.

“They’re out a witch hunt,” she said. “Someone has to stop them.”

On Friday, March 16, Parsons talked with the SPCA and informed them that she had all the documentation they asked for. She told them what it said. As of Thursday, she had not heard back from them.

She told them that to come back to her home, she wanted to see another warrant. But she doesn’t know if they are having trouble getting a warrant or “if they realized they made a mistake.”

Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the SPCA, stated that because Parsons has complied with the order regarding her horses, they are no longer pursuing her. The only remaining issue is directed towards the horses that Parsons isn’t claiming ownership of.

The SPCA is currently in the process of finding the owners of these horses so they can be examined by a vet. Moriarty said that if they cannot find the owners of these horses, they would be happy to remove the horses from the property and give them the treatment they feel they need.

“There is no underlying conspiracy against Ms. Parsons or Petra Smith,” she said.

© Copyright 2007 Langley Times