Caring for thousands of abused and neglected animals is always costly for the B.C. SPCA, but officials say the group has been especially hard hit this year due to the number of orphaned horses in its care.
Senior animal protection officer Eileen Drever says the organization seized more than 100 horses in the last year from across the province. Most were so thin their ribs were showing, and some had infections or serious injuries. One was so weak it had to be lifted out by a crane.
"They were all deemed to be in distress," she said. "I mean skin and bones. The others were forced to live in horrendous conditions."
Nursing them back to health can require a special diet if their systems are weakened from eating dirt. It costs about $500 per month to care for each one, and the SPCA spent more than $200,000 caring for horses alone last year.
"We don't have that kind of money," Drever said. "We are not funded by the government, we rely on the public to support us in the work we do."
SPCA special constable Bonni Price says it broke her heart when the group seized 28 horses from a Vernon property last fall.
"They were thin, this one had an injury, and their hooves were outrages on the horses we did take in," Price said.
Their owner, Carla Christman, has been charged with animal cruelty. In March, a court ruled the SPCA could put her animals up for adoption.
They are now among the dozens of horses the SPCA is still trying to adopt out, many of which remain thin and weak. Drever says the situation could be avoided if owners simply recognized they were failing to care for their animals and found someone else to support them -- before the animals suffer.
"If someone can't afford an animal there is no excuse to allow them to starve," she said. "It's incumbent on them to find a new home for them."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Trevor Rockliffe
