The SaskSPCA is expressing their concerns with the provincial government’s proposed reduction in money provided for animal welfare services.

According to a government release, the province has invested $6.5 million in animal welfare over the last three years. The Ministry of Agriculture has proposed an annual budget of $1.6 million, which is a reduction of over $560,000 annually.

SaskSPCA Communications Coordinator Josh Hourie says that animal welfare services are already underfunded in the current budget and adds that the reductions will make it even hard for Animal Protection Officers to do their jobs properly.

“In a situation when Animal Protection Officers are already underfunded and are accruing a significant amount of overtime because of the high workloads, fewer dollars are not going to help ensure that we are seeing animal welfare enforcement.”

The SaskSPCA is also seeking additional details about the new code of conduct for Animal Protection Officers and would also like to know what role the Saskatchewan Marshals Service would play in animal welfare enforcement.

“We don’t know who’s going to develop the code, we don’t know who’s going to enforce it and ensure that APO’s are compliant. We’re in a situation where we just don’t have a heck of a lot of information and the timeline for this process is significantly shorter than what we’d expect.”

Hourie adds that he would like to see the provincial government discuss changes in animal welfare enforcement with the SaskSPCA in the future.

“Let’s just have a conversion so that we can ensure that going forward, we are actually implementing a program with partners that are able to suitably enforce the Animal Protection Act.”

The SaskSPCA says that the amount of money paid in Animal Protection Officer staff overtime was enough to pay another full time officer.