Recent Investigations

Major Cases in 2008

The trial of Allan Elliot of Annapolis County was ongoing in 2008, leading to a guilty conviction in January 2009. The three-year court battle resulted from charges laid after 130 cows were seized from Elliot’s farm in March 2006. Elliott was charged for failing to provide adequate food, shelter, water and care for the animals.

Sharon Orr was found guilty of animal cruelty and prohibited from owning farm animals for 5 years after the SPCA seized 62 chickens, turkey, and geese; 32 rabbits; 5 goats and 2 dogs from her property.

Alice and Zonda MacIsaac of Cape Breton pled guilty to animal cruelty following two high-profile seizures of 130 animals in February 2008. The two SPCA investigators, two special constables and five RCMP officers who arrived at Celtic Pets Rescue with a warrant found over 100 animals, all victims of horrible neglect. Many were living in the basement of a vacant home that had a sewage back-up so the animals were living in a cess pool. The cats were desperately trying to escape the sewer water that covered the floor and there were dead animals on site amongst the living or partially living. Six days later, more animals were seized from the home of Alice MacIsaac.

The plea agreement reached with Alice and Zonda MacIsaac resulted in a $1,000 fine for each of the two counts of cruelty, a lifetime ban on owning or working with an animal organization, and a 20-year ban on owning animals with the exception of nine agreed upon personal pets.

Digby area puppy brokers Gail Benoit and Dana Bailey were also the focus of an SPCA cruelty investigation in 2008, resulting in eight charges of animal cruelty being laid under provincial and federal legislation. Benoit and Bailey garnered attention in August when the owners of sick puppies purchased from the couple came forward with their stories. Four of those puppies died from the fatal parvovirus within hours or days of being purchased by their new owners. The charges were the result of months of work by the Nova Scotia SPCA’s investigations unit, gathering the information required to attain warrants and press charges, including the execution of a warrant to seize footage from CTV News.