Day three of animal abuse trial details poor conditions of cats and dogs

Her attorney Eldon Lindgren asked her to be quiet and she obliged through tears.

Hamilton was one of three vets to speak to the conditions of cats and dogs found on Haudeck’s property in January of last year, that were later seized by Animal Protection Services of Saskatchewan following the discovery of a horse frozen to the ground.

The first witness testimony focused on the cats and their various ailments.

“I examined all six of the cats and then wrote up these reports following the exams,” she said, noting that the report for each cat was two-pages long.

During her testimony, Dr. Hamilton explained that while all of the cats scored between a five and a six in their body condition, a number of them had dental disease and infections.

Haudeck is facing multiple animal abuse charges both under the criminal code and the Animal Protection Act. If convicted, she faces prison time and monetary fines.

Condition of cats

According to the vet, distress is defined as when an animal experiences stressors beyond its ability to cope and can be environmental, feeding, medical.

Upon surrender, the clinic handling the assessments wasn’t provided with names or ages, so the vet wrote down descriptions. One cat, a calico, was bright and alert and well-hydrated but had ear debris and ear mites and recommended treatment.

When asked by Crown Prosecutor Danielle Elder if ear mites were serious, Hamilton said it can be itchy and if left untreated, can lead to secondary infections.

“In severe cases, there can actually be wounds behind the ears from the damage (cats) do from scratching,” she said, adding that can sometimes lead to damage on the inside of the ear.

Other cats had similar infections of varying degrees of severity. One, a three-year-old white female, had clear discharge coming from her left eye, her ears had a foul-smelling thick discharge.

“I looked at it under the microscope and found bacteria in both ears and then she had a little bit of …coloured discharge from her right nostril,” she said.

Another cat, a white male had similar infections to the others and also Grade 4 dental disease – the worst level on the graded scale.

“One of his incisors (of) the front teeth was loose and then one of his canine teeth was broken,” she said of the cat that was in distress for at least a few months.

“With broken teeth, there’s a nerve channel that runs through the centre of the tooth, if that’s exposed than that causes pain,” she said, adding a cavity had sealed over so she didn’t believe he was in pain from that specific tooth.

The timing

Hamilton explained the calico cat was given back to her owner along with a letter sent for the owner to begin treatment. For another cat, Hamilton had prescribed a medication that contained an anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, an anti-biotic and an anti-inflammatory.

Then they were informed of a decision.

“With the timing of this cat, we didn’t actually get the treatment started before we heard from Animal Protection Services that the cats were to be euthanized,” she said.

The doctor’s testimony seemed to take the courtroom by surprise and after Haudeck’s emotional response and Judge Kevin Hill turned to ask the witness if the cats’ conditions were treatable.

Hamilton said they would’ve been potentially curable.

“A lot of it would come down to the cost of treatment and finding an owner or a rescue that’s able to take that on,” she said.

“I take it was not your decision to euthanize the cats that were left behind,” asked Hill.

“No, it wasn’t.”

Porcupine quills and blindness

Upon a brief recess, Dr. Jesse Vargo and Dr. Alisha Triff spoke about the conditions of the border collies.

The first dog had broken old porcupine quills in his face that caused significant inflammation and suggested they had been in the dog for at least two days or more.

“A few of them were fairly close to the eye,” he said, adding some appeared to have contacted the eye causing damage.

Vargo said one of the globes of the of eye “looked sunken in” and the cloudiness of the eye due to fluid was to the point where it was irreparable.

“There wasn’t much to do medically to treat that, at that point it was too far gone,” he said, noting it could’ve been saved had the dog received treatment earlier.

The dog was also emaciated, the vet said of the dog who was given a body condition score (BCS) of two and had poor quality coat.

The second dog also had quills on the face, including quills on the underside of his tongue and abscessed quills on the face and muzzle, and a less severe corneal ulcer.

“He did have vision still in both eyes,” he said.

The dog also had similar BCS to the first dog, had a nasal infection likely due to imbedded quills.

Elder asked the vet if a person without medical knowledge would be able to see the dog was in poor shape.

“Yeah,” said Vargo.

On cross, Lindgren asked what it would cost to treat the first dog to which Vargo replied that quill removal under sedation, and take-home medication would be roughly $250-300. When defense asked whether the clinic gets a number of quill cases and asked if they are often treated, Vargo again replied in the affirmative.

Then they came to the issue of the second dog.

“Would that have been a dog which could have then been returned to the owner,” asked Lindgren.

“Yeah, typically once we remove the quills they go home once they’re away from sedation with anti-inflammatory and antibiotics,” Vargo said.

Triff, meanwhile also confirmed similar testimony and said it would take months for the dogs to get in that condition.

The trial is adjourned to Sept. 16 for the wrap of the crown’s case and to begin the defense’s case.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social

by Julia Lovett-Squires

Day three of animal abuse trial details poor conditions of cats and dogs

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