INNISFAIL - Ownership of three of the eight dogs recovered from the Bluebird Motel today has been positively identified, according to police.
Innisfail RCMP Sgt. Lori Eiler confirmed that three of the dogs are owned by the 46 year-old woman arrested at the motel last night who still remains in custody today.
After receiving a complaint of a suspicious person in Innisfail around 11:25 p.m. on July 17, RCMP located the female at the Bluebird. She was believed to have dogs in her possession, contrary to court-imposed conditions to not possess animals.
A second dog-related complaint made today has Innisfail RCMP investigating whether the dogs were stolen.
Innisfail RCMP received a complaint of a female recently posing as a law enforcement professional asking questions of a dog owner about her dog and allegedly attempting to take the dog.
Eiler said the suspect in today’s complaint matches the description of the 46 year-old woman arrested at the Bluebird on Tuesday night.
The eight dogs were recovered from the motel this morning and taken to Klassic Kennels in Red Deer County to be held and cared for while ownership is determined.
Earlier this afternoon, Klassic Kennels posted on social media that it had an “urgent situation” and was seeking identification and ownership of six of the dogs.
“The six that we posted have no permanent identification,” said Jim Deboon, Klassic Kennels owner/operator.
They included an intact male weimaraner, an intact male Dutch shepherd, three female terrier crosses and a female dachshund/terrier type mix.
“Please share in B.C. and all over Alberta,” reads Klassic Kennels’ post on Facebook.
Deboon said all the dogs “were in reasonably good shape,” when he picked then up from the motel, adding a number of them "were pretty stressed."
While he didn’t divulge much about dogs' situation or the person arrested citing the RCMP investigation, he did warn people not to sell their pets on Kijiji and other similar ways.
“That’s a very precarious way to re-home your pet,” Deboon said, adding re-homing pets through licensed facilities is a safer route.
The Innisfail community has had heightened awareness in recent weeks after discussions on Innisfail and Area Rural Crime Watch’s Facebook page suggested two women convicted of animal cruelty in 2015 had relocated to the area.
On July 4, BC SPCA announced it was recommending new charges of animal cruelty against Karin and Catherine Adams after seizing 16 dogs in distress from a property in Quesnel.
According to BC SPCA, the dogs were being kept in crates too small for their size in a poorly ventilated area, with little to no access to water.
The organization said in a press release that the pairs' 2015 sentence included a 20-year ban on owning animals.
Innisfail RCMP did not disclose where the person they arrested at the Bluebird is from.
Eiler did say that the court-imposed conditions on the suspect Innisfail has in custody are from an out-of-province investigation.
