Kenneth Hunter, a dairy and hog farmer, has lost most of the
damages he won in earlier court cases against the Ontario Society for
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
He had won almost $12,000 by arguing that the inspector and
veterinarian who tagged him with three animal-cruelty offences violated his rights
when they entered his property when he was not there.
But the Superior Court of Ontario, after a hearing in Perth, near Ottawa, threw out those awards and
substituted them with $100 for Hunter.
It left the matter of how much Hunter owes the OSCPA for its
legal costs to negotiations among the lawyers.
The court evidence indicates that a municipal inspector
called in the OSCPA after she visited the farm, could not find Hunter, but saw
pigs in manure up to their chests and dairy cattle standing in deep water and
manure with no feed.
