Former owner of the Animal House pet store in Okotoks Tyler Marshall is now suing the ASPCA after original charges against him were dropped.

Manager of Communications for the Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Dan Kobe says the charges were made after an investigation on a property in Vulcan County.

"Essentially those charges were related to about 200 animals that he had on his property. At the time there was concern that those animals were in distress. Several months later 50 of the animals were returned to him under a court supervised agreement, and the rest of those animals were re-homed to 11 families."

Kobe says the original complaint came from one of Marshall's customers who raised concerns about their dog's significant health problems.

"The original complaint that we investigated was somebody who purchased a dog from Mr.Marshall and that dog had Parvovirus. It's a highly contagious virus in the canine community, it spreads quite quickly and can be fatal for dogs."

The ASPCA later seized 131 dogs, 62 rabbits, eight cats, and three tortoises from the Vulcan county property.

On April 28th, 2017 two initial charges were laid against Marshall, with an additional charge being laid on July 4th, 2017 relating to a separate case of alleged mistreatment.

The charges Marshall accumulated have all been dropped and his legal representation, Calgary lawyer Brendan Miller, seeks to clear his name.

Kobe says that it's the duty of the ASPCA to follow up on all complaints and investigate them appropriately.

"We receive probably 2000 or more complaints in a year, and we follow up with every single one of them and if it's necessary to go to the property where we see, or have the complaint for and check out what's going on there, then that's what we do."

 

Read More:

Former Animal House Owner To Appear In Court

Vulcan County Denies Application For Dog Breeding Facility

More Charges For Former Pet Store Owner

 

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