In this case, the cat had shelter, food, and protection from an individual – but was allowed to wander through town freely. It was killed by Villeneuve while straying on his property. The court deemed that the degree of control exercised over the cat was insufficient, and that it constituted a stray.
The accused was charged with killing an animal under section 445 which requires the animal to be a kept animal. The Court accepted the dictionary definition of kept as “Keeping and harbouring both necessarily imply an intent to exercise control over the animal and to provide food and shelter of at least a semi-permanent nature.” If an ingredient is lacking then the animal is not a kept animal. The victim cat was an owned cat but was let out on a daily basis to wander the streets. [para 13] “To the eye of the ordinary beholder, the cat, while on the loose was just another cat milling about in this community with dozens of others of its kind throughout the town of Wawa.” The accused had shot the cat with a pellet gun because the cat had strayed onto his property. The cat was found to be a stray and not deserving of protection of the criminal code.
Charge is dismissed, since ‘kept for a lawful purpose’ as per s. 445(a) contemplates a keeper and a measure of control to be exercised by the keeper.