By Connor Lynch
The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is investigating undercover video shot by an animal activist who trespassed on five farms in Ontario in the middle of the night.
Over the summer of 2017, Martin Klimowicz of the Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance trespassed onto the five farms, three of which are in Western Ontario, and began releasing the footage last month.
The OSPCA has since opened an investigation into mink farms in Ontario, according to the London Free Press.
The move is just the latest in animal activists’ long-standing war against mink farmers in Ontario.
Back in April of 2016, a mink farm in Brant County was broken into and 500 mink were released.
In 2015, 6,300 mink were released from a fur farm at St. Mary’s, and 300 were released from another farm near Guelph. The farmer near Guelph retired shortly after the attack. Returning activists, not finding any mink to release, slashed his truck tires.
Trespassing can be prosecuted as either an indictable or summary conviction in Ontario. As an indictable offence, it carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; as a summary offence, a maximum of six months in prison.
