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A popular Canadian
crime-tip website is requesting the public’s help in finding a 57-year-old woman who is wanted in relation to charges of animal cruelty.
The posting
is the first of its kind on Saskatoon Crime Stoppers, which has never listed a
suspect of animal cruelty before.
Repeat
offender
April
Irving has been at large since 2016, when she failed to show up to court after
201 dogs were seized from her care near Lethbridge, Alberta.
In 2010,
Irving was convicted for animal distress and prohibited from owning more than
two dogs at once after 80 were taken from her property.
At large
There have
been multiple reported sightings of Irving in and around Negril, Jamaica since her
missed court date.
Debbie
Lightheart, of Negril Spay and Neuter Clinic, says Irving brought in two ’emaciated dogs’ and was calling herself ‘Carol’.
She added: “The
one dog should have been put down at that time, because you could tell
everything was shutting down on the dog, but she wouldn’t take the vet’s advice
and said that she could heal it.”
Dr. Calvern
Thomas, a veterinarian with the Jamaica Society for the Protection of Animals [JSPCA], said Irving has come in to the centre looking to adopt, but that he
refused ‘because of past experience with her’.
‘Loopholes’
Despite
warrants for Irving’s arrest in Alberta and Saskatchewan, she can’t be
immediately arrested – or stopped from leaving the country – in any other
province.
The executive
director of Animal Protection Services of Saskatchewan, Kelly Pugh, called the
situation ‘absurd’.
She added: “It’s really unfortunate that there’s these loopholes in the
system that mean that people who we’re looking for here can just leave the
country.”
