A hog farmer from Notre Dame, Man., has become the first person in the province banned for life from owning or caring for livestock.
Judge Kelly Moar sentenced Martin Grenier June 3 after he pleaded guilty to starving hundreds of pigs under his care. Grenier also received a $60,000 fine for his role in what may be the worst case of animal cruelty in Manitoba’s history.
“When one talks of maximums, it is often reserved for the worst case scenario. It’s hard to imagine a case worse than the one before us today,” Moar was reported by the Winnipeg Sun as saying during sentencing.
RCMP officers and Manitoba government employees visited Grenier’s farm last June after receiving an anonymous tip. They discovered hundreds of pigs that had died or were dying from starvation.
Provincial investigators later found the remains of several hundred other pigs, which surviving pigs on the farm had eaten.
Last fall, the Manitoba government charged Grenier and his wife, Delores, with 23 offences under the province’s Animal Care Act and six violations of the Criminal Code of Canada. Each offence under the Animal Care Act comes with a maximum penalty of $10,000, six months in jail, or both.
The charges against Delores Grenier were stayed, on the condition that she doesn’t own livestock for five years.
The lifetime ban imposed on her husband is a first in Manitoba and was made possible by amendments to the provincial Animal Care Act in 2009.
The previous maximum penalty had been a five-year ban on owning animals.
