Three accused (Bennett Bulger, Bruce Mann, and Reginald Arsenault) were convicted by a jury of stealing a cow, contrary to s. 298(1.1) of the Criminal Code. The stolen cow belonged to a farmer in Prince Edward Island and had disappeared in August 1977.
At sentencing, the trial judge concluded that the cow had been alive when she was dragged approximately 8 miles and died along the way, describing the incident as an act of extreme cruelty. Based in part on this finding, Bulger received a sentence of three years’ imprisonment, while Mann and Arsenault each received sentences of two years less one day.
The Prince Edward Island Supreme Court, Appeal Division, allowed the offenders’ sentence appeals and reduced all three sentences. The Court found that there was no evidence to support the trial judge’s conclusion that the cow had been alive when dragged or that the accused had cruelly killed the animal. The accused had been convicted only of cattle theft, not animal cruelty, and the trial judge improperly relied on an unproven allegation of cruelty when imposing sentence. As a result, Bulger’s sentence was reduced from three years to two years’ imprisonment. Mann’s and Arsenault’s sentences were reduced from two years less one day to twelve months’ imprisonment each.
This case emphasizes that a sentencing judge cannot increase a sentence based on facts that were not proven at trial. The appeal court stressed that if the Crown wished to pursue allegations of animal cruelty, the accused should have been charged under the separate animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code, highlighting the distinction between the offence of cattle theft and the offence of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
The Court also highlighted the importance of considering an offender’s criminal record at paragraphs 9-10 when determining sentence since Bulger received a harsher sentence than his co-accused due to his past criminal history. His past convictions involve theft, breaking and entering, or attempted theft.
R v Bulger