A starving dog rescued from Burnsville

The New Brunswick SPCA (NBSP­CA) Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cer received a call from a law enforce­ment agency on Jan­u­ary 2, 2021, about a weak and skin­ny dog in Burnsville, New Brunswick. The Offi­cer saw a high­ly ema­ci­at­ed dog tied to a tree with its ribs and spine clear­ly vis­i­ble and seized it from its own­er, Mr. Pinet. In light of the dog’s frail con­di­tion, the Offi­cers prompt­ly took the dog to a vet­eri­nary clin­ic for exam­i­na­tion. After eval­u­at­ing the dog thor­ough­ly, the vet­eri­nar­i­an gave the dog a Body Con­di­tion Score of 1.5÷5 and pre­scribed a reha­bil­i­ta­tion plan to ensure recovery. 

The Offi­cers took the dog to an ani­mal shel­ter for reha­bil­i­ta­tion and worked with the shel­ter to devel­op a care­ful­ly mon­i­tored refeed­ing pro­gram. In a week, the dog gained 5.2 pounds and dis­played notable improve­ments in his appear­ance and activ­i­ty lev­el. With­in a month the dog added 15.8 pounds look­ing healthy and bright with a sparkle in his eyes, ready for a new life full of adventure. 

As a result of NBSPCA’s inves­ti­ga­tion, charges were laid on Mr. Pinet for fail­ing to pro­vide ade­quate food and water to the dog, and on June 15, 2021, he made his ini­tial court appear­ance in Cara­quet Provin­cial Court. Even­tu­al­ly, on April 21, 2023, the court sen­tenced Mr. Pinet to eight months of pro­ba­tion and pro­hib­it­ed him from own­ing ani­mals for a peri­od of five years. He was fined $500 and also ordered to pay $185 to cov­er the expens­es incurred by the shelter. 

The NBSP­CA works in part­ner­ship with sev­er­al stake­hold­ers such as New Brunswick’s law enforce­ment agen­cies, ani­mal shel­ters, vet­eri­nar­i­ans, and most impor­tant­ly You to help ani­mals live long and healthy lives. 

If you sus­pect or wit­ness ani­mal cru­el­ty or neglect, please call the New Brunswick SPCA ²⁴⁄₇ hot­line at 1−877−722−1522. Thank you for doing your part to pro­tect and give these defence­less ani­mals a voice.

About New Brunswick SPCA

Found­ed in 1881, New Brunswick SPCA (NBSC­PA) is the only province-wide orga­ni­za­tion man­dat­ed to enforce ani­mal pro­tec­tion laws. A ded­i­cat­ed team of 15 Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers is vest­ed with the author­i­ty under the SPCA Act of New Brunswick to inves­ti­gate and, if nec­es­sary, lay charges, seize ani­mals, or issue orders to per­sons sus­pect­ed of abuse and cru­el­ty to animals. 

The NBSP­CA is a reg­is­tered char­i­ty that exists to pro­vide province-wide lead­er­ship in the humane treat­ment of ani­mals. We enforce rel­e­vant leg­is­la­tion, ensure shel­ter for neglect­ed or abused domes­ti­cat­ed ani­mals and agri­cul­tur­al ani­mals, and pro­vide pub­lic edu­ca­tion and advo­ca­cy to empow­er New Brunswick­ers to help ani­mals live long and healthy lives. 

To learn more vis­it nbsp​ca​.ca