Animal welfare investigations by the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society will continue for the next six months.
After Friday, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or SPCA will no longer investigate complaints of animal cruelty or neglect.
Back in March, the agency said it would no longer carry out investigations once its contract ended. That ended the end of March, but the OSPCA offered to continue investigative work for another three months while the Ford government moved to a new system.
The OSPCA had been carrying out animal welfare investigations for a century.
A photo of Deema. (courtesy of the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society)
To ensure suffering animals do not fall through the cracks during the transition, an interim chief inspector has appointed new temporary animal welfare inspectors, many from local humane societies like the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society.
Melanie Coulter, the executive director of the local humane society, called it good news for animals in Windsor-Essex.
"Our organization looks forward to working with others to create a new animal welfare and law enforcement structure in Ontario that will be a model for other jurisdictions, and in the meantime, we welcome the opportunity to continue our current animal welfare enforcement work," she said in a release.
The Solicitor General appointed the interim chief inspector.
"Developing a new model for animal protection cannot be rushed, and it is too important not to get right. This is a temporary solution to fill the gaps," read a government statement.
The public can report animal abuse and neglect at 1-833-964-4625 or 9ANIMAL where calls will be triaged and dispatched to the appropriate agency.
In Windsor-Essex, concerned citizens can also call the local humane society directly at 519-966-5751.