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Printed Jan 16, 2025 • Final up to date 3 days in the past • 4 minute learn
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‘We’re at a degree the place it is simply, it is terrible.’ Chelsey Flanders, left, and associate Lexa Mogck are proven with one in every of their cats on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. The couple travelled to Windsor from Alberta in June with 12 cats, 5 canines and a horse. Photograph by Dan Janisse / Ontario Chronicle
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A younger couple going through a $17,000 invoice for the return of 18 animals, together with 4 service canines, that have been seized in Windsor by Animal Welfare Providers is taking their case to Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal.
Chelsey Flanders and her associate, Lexa Mogck, misplaced an attraction below the provincial Animal Welfare Providers Act in October of an order to pay $17,086 for boarding and veterinarian companies arising from the seizure of their animals.
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The pair’s animals — 5 canines, 12 cats and a horse — have been taken into Animal Welfare custody final June 5 after inspectors discovered them in a rental truck parked at Ford Check Observe.
The provincial Animal Welfare Providers Act doesn’t differentiate between the care wanted for pets versus service animals. It does say that no particular person shall trigger an animal to be in misery, and anybody with custody or care of an animal shall adjust to the requirements of care and administrative necessities.
“My fiancé and I have what is required for our service animals under the Accessibility Ontario Disabilities Act,” Flanders stated. “We need them to work and complete daily tasks.”
Flanders and Mogck have been spending the night time within the truck with the animals after driving from Alberta to Windsor, the place Mogck is enrolled on the College of Windsor and Flanders was planning on working in her area of environmental science.
They have been transferring into a brand new dwelling close to the college that day.
However officers with the Animal Welfare Service seized the animals, alleging in experiences that the animals have been in misery and with out meals or water on a day the place the temperature reached 30 Celsius.
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“Yeah, that was completely inaccurate,” Flanders instructed the Star. “My fiancé, Lexa Mogck, was returning with three whole tubs of water and there was cat food.
“There wasn’t dog food present,” she stated. “We feed our dogs raw (food). Because I’m Indigenous, that’s what I have opted to feed.
“We had told the inspector that … because we had spent the one night in the (rental truck), we hadn’t run out and purchased two nights of food because we didn’t have a cooler.”
I would like my canines
Flanders has three service canines and one in coaching. Ahsoka, a terrific Pyrenees/Rottweiler/bloodhound combine, is required for mobility and psychiatric points; Hera, a German shepherd, is a cardiac and allergen alert canine; and Aayla, a Labrador retriever pet, is in coaching for medical alerts and retrievals.
Flanders stated she has been unable to work with out her canines together with her.
Mogck’s service canine, Chimaera, is a German short-haired pointer required for a mind concern.
“My fiancé has really struggled this last semester in school (due to) tremors from a brain injury,” Flanders, 21, stated. “So it’s been really hard on her, on her studies.
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“And then, of course, without me being able to work, I’m trying to get onto Ontario Works, but that’s a long process.
“So we’re at a point where it’s just, it’s awful,” she stated. “There’s no income that can be made.
“I need my dogs. I’ve had to be hospitalized multiple times, taking multiple ambulances because of the cardiac issue.”
Finally, the horse and 11 of the cats have been returned to Flanders and Mogck. The horse is being boarded at a Chatham facility.
However 5 canines and one cat have been retained and saved below veterinarian care because of “low body condition score” and moreover, “emaciation” in two of the canines, based on Animal Welfare official experiences.
Lots of the animals wanted to be vaccinated and all got medical examinations.
Charges for skilled care amounted to $17,086.
Chelsey Flanders, left, and her associate Lexa Mogck are proven with one in every of their cats on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. The couple travelled to Windsor from Alberta in June with 12 cats, 5 canines and a horse. Photograph by Dan Janisse / Ontario Chronicle
Unable to pay the $17,086 cost, the couple was knowledgeable that the animals have been forfeited to the Crown on Dec. 17.
“They ordered us to pay, which made absolutely zero sense,” Flanders stated. “That is under reconsideration.
“We’re taking both of those decisions for judicial review as well as bringing it to the Human Rights Tribunal.”
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Flanders stated she and Mogck have finished all the things inspectors have required of them since settling into their Windsor dwelling, and if the animals have been returned, they might be capable to take care of them.
“Yeah, 100 per cent. We’ve never had an issue with any of that,” Flanders stated.
“We allowed one inspector to come visit at the home and he confirmed it was clean and everything was good. But they just never returned them.”
Animal Welfare Officers declined to talk with the Star when contacted.
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“As this matter involves active litigation, it would be inappropriate to provide comment,” stated Brent Ross, spokesman for the Ministry of the Solicitor Normal, through a written assertion.
“I’m hoping to (get the animals back),” Flanders stated. “They claim that there’s no hope, which is absolutely insane.
“The two service animals of mine are fully trained and required at the end of the day,” she stated. “As is my fiance’s. So I’m hoping that the Human Rights Tribunal is able to do something.
“But at the very least, I’d like them to work with us.”
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