A Penticton woman is facing three counts of animal cruelty after three dogs were allegedly discovered emaciated and huddled in a crate surrounded by their own feces in January.
Joelle Mbamy, 54, is charged with causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal, failing to provide necessaries for an animal, and causing an animal to continue to be in distress.
Photographs provided to Global News in January showed two spaniels and one Rottweiler huddled together in a four-by-eight-foot wire cage.
“It was the result of a call that went into our call center about their living conditions,” said Kathy Woodward, BC SPCA senior Animal Protection Officer at the time.
Two of the animals were rehabilitated by the Kelowna SPCA.
Another was sent to the Rose Valley Veterinary Hospital in West Kelowna.
“There is no muscles, completely no muscle, just skin and bones beneath this fur. He was quite dehydrated, very, very pale,” said Dr. Moshe Oz, owner of the clinic in January.
A neighbor who asked not to be identified said concerned residents in the neighbourhood contacted the RCMP and the SPCA several times to report the squalid conditions where the dogs were living.
They questioned what took the animal welfare organization so long to finally seize the animals.
Mbamy made her first court appearance in Penticton Provincial Court on March 22.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 26.