Frequently Asked Questions

Of course! We’re always hap­py to speak to school class­es and oth­er groups. In par­tic­u­lar, our Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers fre­quent­ly deliv­er talks to school class­es as part of our Dog Bite Safe­ty Cam­paign. Call our admin­is­tra­tive num­ber (506) 458‑8208 or email us at info@​nbpsca.​ca to set up a talk.

Our hot­line oper­a­tors are ful­ly bilin­gual. In French-speak­ing areas of the province, we make every effort to dis­patch bilin­gual offi­cers to car­ry out inves­ti­ga­tions and con­duct pet estab­lish­ment inspec­tions, and we try to pro­vide doc­u­men­ta­tion in both offi­cial languages.

The NBSP­CA focus­es its work on the enforce­ment of exist­ing leg­is­la­tion and the kinds of ani­mal-pro­tec­tion sit­u­a­tions that arise in New Brunswick on a day-to-day basis. We con­tribute to the nation­al debate about larg­er humane issues main­ly through our mem­ber­ship in and sup­port of Humane Cana­da.

The NBSP­CA doesn’t oper­ate ani­mal shel­ters or man­age adop­tions and sur­ren­ders of ani­mals, but we work close­ly with many shel­ters across the province. Check out the list of local shel­ters.

If your dog becomes lost, you should check the NBSP­CA Face­book page and/​or call your local shel­ter. Be pre­pared to pro­vide a detailed descrip­tion of your dog along with the area in which it was lost.

If you live in a rur­al area and your cat or dog has strayed off your prop­er­ty, there’s a chance that it’s been picked up by an NBSP­CA Ani­mal Con­trol Offi­cer. Vis­it our Face­book page to see if they’ve post­ed your dog. The NBSP­CA serves Arca­dia (Gage­town and Cam­bridge-Nar­rows), Boutouche, Car­leton North (Bath, Cen­ter­ville and Flo­renceville – Bris­tol), Fred­er­ic­ton Junc­tion, Hamp­ton, Hart­land, Nack­aw­ic, Nor­ton, Plas­ter Rock, Quis­pam­sis, Rex­ton, Richibuc­to, Saint Quentin, Saint Louis de Kent, Sal­is­bury, South­ern Vic­to­ria (Perth-Andover & Aroos­t­ook), St. George, Sus­sex and Woodstock.

If you live in a munic­i­pal area, an Ani­mal Con­trol Offi­cer (not con­nect­ed with the NBSP­CA) may have picked up your dog. Con­tact your munic­i­pal­i­ty, your ani­mal con­trol offi­cer, and the near­est ani­mal shel­ter. Please, do so quick­ly, espe­cial­ly if your dog isn’t wear­ing a license tag. Under most ani­mal con­trol bylaws, you lose own­er­ship of your ani­mal after just a few days if it is not reclaimed. Please note: You may have to pay a fine and board­ing expens­es when you reclaim your impound­ed dog.

For a lost cat, check with your local ani­mal shel­ter, put up posters and adver­tise in the local media. Cats often let their curios­i­ty lure them into garages and sheds, where they may get locked in. Ask your neigh­bours to check their garages and outbuildings. 

Your city’s munic­i­pal work­ers may have infor­ma­tion about cats struck by cars, whose bod­ies they have removed. Some cities have bylaws against cats that stray off their owner’s prop­er­ty; in those cas­es, the cat may have been picked up by the local ani­mal con­trol offi­cer. Call your local offi­cer or pound to inquire.

When a stray dog is picked up and the own­ers are unknown, the dog is pro­vid­ed with imme­di­ate vet­eri­nary care (if need­ed), then housed at a part­ner shel­ter or ken­nel. Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers post notices of all dogs picked up run­ning at large on our Face­book page. Under the Provin­cial Dog Reg­u­la­tions, if the dog is not claimed with­in 72 hours the dog becomes the prop­er­ty of the NBSP­CA. We are for­tu­nate to have part­ner­ships with the local shel­ters and gen­er­al­ly, the dogs are turned over to them for adoption.

Under the New Brunswick SPCA Act, ​“pet estab­lish­ment” means (a) an ani­mal shel­ter, (b) a pet retail store, or © a ken­nel. A ken­nel is defined as an estab­lish­ment where dogs are bred to be sold or board­ed for money.

If you main­tain a pet estab­lish­ment under any of these three cat­e­gories, you must be inspect­ed and licensed by the NBSP­CA. Groom­ing busi­ness­es, vet­eri­nary clin­ics, premis­es that board and sell live­stock, and rid­ing sta­bles are among the types of oper­a­tions that are cur­rent­ly exempt from the pet estab­lish­ment regulations.

A pet estab­lish­ment licence is a cer­tifi­cate issued by the Province of New Brunswick after a facil­i­ty has passed an inspec­tion by the NBSP­CA. The licence has a num­ber spe­cif­ic to you that must be used when adver­tis­ing lit­ters of pup­pies for sale. In accor­dance with sub­sec­tion 24(1) of the SPCA Act, a per­son who oper­ates a pet estab­lish­ment with­out a licence is com­mit­ting an offence.

A pet estab­lish­ment licence is required for (a) any breed­er and sell­er of dogs in New Brunswick, (b) ani­mal shel­ters, © pet retail stores sell­ing ani­mals, and (d) any place where dogs are board­ed overnight.

A pet estab­lish­ment licence costs $250/​year for breed­ers, overnight board­ing ken­nels and pet retail stores. A licence for shel­ters costs $100/​year. When a licence is issued it is valid for one year.

To obtain a pet estab­lish­ment license, you must pro­vide proof that you are in com­pli­ance with local zon­ing by-laws or zon­ing reg­u­la­tions made under the Com­mu­ni­ty Plan­ning Act. Con­tact your local com­mu­ni­ty or Region­al Ser­vice Com­mis­sion to request con­fir­ma­tion (by email or let­ter) that you are per­mit­ted to oper­ate a pet estab­lish­ment at your loca­tion. Once you’ve received this doc­u­ment, for­ward it to the NBSPCA’s head office at info@​nbspca.​ca and com­plete the online appli­ca­tion for a Pet Estab­lish­ment Licence. If you don’t have access to the inter­net, a paper copy of the appli­ca­tion can be mailed to you.

Once the appli­ca­tion has been received and pay­ment has been made, an Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cer will sched­ule a time with you to com­plete the on-site inspection.

There are dif­fer­ent require­ments for in-home breed­ers, pet retail stores, ken­nels and shel­ters. The APO will go through check­lists with you and work with you to improve any defi­cien­cies. Upon pass­ing your inspec­tion, an offi­cial licence will be issued and mailed to you. You must dis­play it in your facility.

Licence num­bers must be post­ed on all adver­tis­ing mate­ri­als (e.g., busi­ness cards, fly­ers, Kiji­ji ads, etc.) Your offi­cial licence must be promi­nent­ly dis­played in your facility.

Pet estab­lish­ment licens­ing ensures that all dogs and ani­mals are kept and brought up in a clean and healthy envi­ron­ment. It also ensures that breed­ers and own­ers com­ply with a cer­tain stan­dard of care. Pet estab­lish­ment licens­ing is not intend­ed to pro­vide assur­ance about the qual­i­ty of an indi­vid­ual ani­mal offered for sale by a pet estab­lish­ment or about an indi­vid­ual animal’s con­for­mi­ty to breed stan­dards or reg­is­tra­tion requirements.

Stray dogs, dogs run­ning at large, nui­sance bark­ing and dog bites are all issues dealt with by NBSP­CA Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers. If you would like to report a ani­mal con­trol issue, please call our hot­line at 1−877−722−1522.

If you live in a rur­al area or munic­i­pal­i­ty, where the NBSP­CA is respon­si­ble for stray dogs and nui­sance dogs, you can call our hot­line at 1−877−722−1522. An NBSP­CA Dog Con­sta­ble will inves­ti­gate the situation.

If you live in a vil­lage, town, or city that has its own ani­mal con­trol bylaws and offi­cers, you will need to call your munic­i­pal office or ani­mal con­trol offi­cer. If you’re not sure which applies, give us a call at 1−877−722−1522 and an oper­a­tor will advise you.

The NBSP­CA doesn’t pick up stray or home­less cats unless they are injured, are in imme­di­ate dan­ger, or are being abused. If you can’t find the cat’s own­er, we rec­om­mend call­ing your near­est ani­mal shel­ter to bring the cat in to sur­ren­der it. Please, remem­ber that cats with good homes some­times roam for long peri­ods of their own free will and may appear homeless. 

The NBSP­CA also can’t deal with colonies of fer­al cats. In some cas­es, how­ev­er, the orga­ni­za­tion CAR­MA (Cat-Res­cue-Mar­itimes) can assist with fer­al colonies.

Under provin­cial law, the NBSP­CA is not allowed to inter­vene with wild ani­mals (unless they are being held in cap­tiv­i­ty). Please call the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources.

After pass­ing an exam, Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers are appoint­ed by the Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­ment and Local Gov­ern­ment under the SPCA Act. Our Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers assist the munic­i­pal police and RCMP on ani­mal-relat­ed mat­ters. Under the New Brunswick SPCA Act, they have the author­i­ty to seize ani­mals, con­duct inves­ti­ga­tions, and (in co-oper­a­tion with oth­er law enforce­ment agen­cies and the Crown Pros­e­cu­tors Office) bring charges. Vol­un­teer res­cuers, res­cue groups, shel­ter work­ers, and ani­mal con­trol offi­cers do not have these powers.

If you’re inter­est­ed in becom­ing an Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cer, email a a cov­er let­ter and resume to info@​nbspca.​ca with the sub­ject line ​“Atten­tion of the Chief Inspec­tor.” We will keep your infor­ma­tion on file should a vacan­cy in your region arise. Expe­ri­ence with law enforce­ment and/​or ani­mal-han­dling is an asset, as are the inter­per­son­al skills to deal suc­cess­ful­ly with poten­tial­ly con­fronta­tion­al situations.

Yes. Every com­plaint that comes in from the hot­line is inves­ti­gat­ed by an officer.

Under NBSP­CA pol­i­cy, Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers are required to report the out­come of an inves­ti­ga­tion to the person(s) who report­ed the case, if they request it. If more than a week has gone by and you have not heard from the offi­cer, please call the hot­line num­ber again and ask for a report. Remem­ber that Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers are legal­ly bound to respect the con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and pri­va­cy of indi­vid­u­als being inves­ti­gat­ed, so they may not be able to share all the infor­ma­tion obtained.

Teth­er­ing dogs for an extend­ed peri­od of time increas­es their lev­el of stress, pro­tec­tive­ness and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, as well as their poten­tial for aggres­sion. How­ev­er, keep­ing a dog teth­ered out­side is not a vio­la­tion of the New Brunswick SPCA Act, and the NBSP­CA has no author­i­ty to intervene. 

Cur­rent­ly, the SPCA Act restricts teth­er­ing of dogs dur­ing the night­time. The teth­er­ing of dogs will not be per­mit­ted for more than 30 min­utes between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless the own­er or per­son respon­si­ble is out­side and with­in 25 metres of the dog. The asso­ci­at­ed fine is a min­i­mum of $240.