Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
PETERBOROUGH – Walter Ray, the 78-year-old Peterborough-area beef farmer whose cattle were scooped up and placed in costly foster care by provincial animal welfare authorities in December 2021 — without just cause — is seeking $2 million in damages in a lawsuit filed against the involved officials earlier this year.
The intervention at the Ray farm was the first time that the province’s newly constituted animal police — or PAWS — removed cattle from an active commercial operation where there was no allegation of animal abuse or distress. In their statement of claim, plaintiffs Walter Ray and his wife, Gwenda, allege that those involved acted in “bad faith” and with “ill will” to inflict “significant emotional and financial harm” on them, and “deliberately destroyed” their cattle business.
The Rays fought to reclaim the approximately 102 beef cattle taken by PAWS, which demanded they pay hefty boarding and transportation fees that ranged from $20 to $50 per day per animal. The fees racked up by PAWS in five months of holding the cattle — more than $390,000 — exceeded the value of the herd when it was ultimately sold at auction for $88,000 in 2022, according to the statement prepared by the Rays’ lawyer, Bob Scriven, and filed in court earlier this year.
A provincial tribunal — the Animal Care Review Board — decimated the agency’s whopping financial claim against Walter Ray and his wife, Gwenda, chopping it down to just over $14,000. PAWS then initiated a judicial review before abandoning its appeal.
The Rays’ troubling saga began when PAWS rounded up 102 of the elderly couple’s 170 Angus-cross beef cattle on Dec. 16, 2021, after Walter Ray failed to comply with orders to clean up alleged “hazardous debris” on parts of the 200-acre property where the animals roamed. There was stockpiled debris near the barns, but the fields the animals occupied were largely pasture.
Two animals were injured badly during the botched wrangling effort and had to be destroyed. They were not injured by debris but by the chaotic PAWS roundup that included roaming ATVs. A PAWS contractor ended up in a Toronto hospital with serious injuries.
The statement of claim also alleges that some of the cattle and their offspring “died at the hands of the ‘foster farmers’” who kept the Rays’ cattle on behalf of PAWS. Those operators were “abysmal in their duties” by not providing shelter or windbreaks for the animals, according to the statement.
The Rays’ lawsuit names as defendants several PAWS inspectors, supervisors and the province’s chief animal welfare inspector. Also named is the veterinarian alleged to have issued the veterinary certificate authorizing the inspectors to remove the cattle.
Their $2-million claim is specifically for “misfeasance in public office … breach of duty of care … defamation … general and punitive damages … loss of income … intentional interference with economic relations … and abuse of process,” according to the statement. None of the allegations has been proven in court.
The Rays have requested that the suit be heard in Peterborough court.
