AWS – Another Dereliction of Duty

AWS Incident #: UCN20580965

GEORGIAN BLUFFS, ONTARIO – July 10 – July 20, 2025

Last week and this past weekend another situation arose with dogs in distress. This time in the Wiarton area. AWS had been brought in to assist and was transpired is a travesty the animal loving people and taxpayers of Ontario need to know about.

Background:

A property owner on a rural property had brought on a tenant (Edwin Garcia) who ran a dog rehabilitation business/sanctuary business (Royal Bridge Sanctuary). The property owner had indicated that they would get the appropriate kennel license but they did not. The tenant and his dog rehabilitation business moved onto the property without having any agreements in writing.

Due to a landlord / tenant disagreement the tenant was being evicted July 18, 2025.

Brian Folis of Municipal Bylaws (who was previously with Owen Sound police but apparently fired) was called to a property on July 10. According to Mr. Garcia, Mr. Folis barged into where they were staying making his wife and daughter cry. He continued into Mr. Garcia’s daughters room and broke a camera. While on the property, Mr. Folis saw that both the property owner and the tenant both had too many dogs as allowed by the municipality. The Bylaw officer called Provincial Animal Welfare Services (AWS) which is the enforcement division under the PAWS Act of Ontario.

AWS did not show up at the property until July 15. At that time the two AWS officers – Senior Investigator John Brown and Inspector Sarah Dykeman said the dogs were in good shape and well cared for.

With the eviction date (July 19) fast approaching the tenant was trying to secure placement for the dogs in his care (approximately 30 dogs). He was able to place over 20 of them safely but 9 dogs remained at the property.

On July 16, Mr. Garcia reached out to AWS for help. He had no where for these 9 dogs to go once he was evicted. Inspector Dykeman responded: “this is not a service we offer, we don’t have facilities”. She went on to advise him to reach out to shelters and rescues. Mr. Garcia immediately started reaching out immediately to colleagues asking for help placing the dogs. That is how Humane Initiative became involved along with other rescues and animal welfare advocates as were scrambling to find placement.

NOTE: the dogs that Royal Bridge Sanctuary deal with are often behaviour dogs with bite histories. This makes placement even more difficult. The 9 dogs in question were going to be difficult to find placement for and Mr. Garcia knew that some of the dogs may need to be humanely euthanized.

On Friday, July 18 the property owners called AWS to say Mr. Garcia had left and abandoned the animals. When AWS arrived, they found Mr. Garcia there tending to the dogs – he had not abandoned them at all. At that time AWS Senior J Brown told Mr. Garcia that he was going to charge him with 2 MAJOR OFFENCES under the PAWS Act:

• Causing Distress – Section 15 (1)
• Permitting Distress – Section 15 (2)

With the eviction notice now active the ONLY WAY for Mr. Garcia to legally tend to the 9 dogs was with a police escort. Repeated calls to Wiarton OPP asking them to come to the property resulted in them coming several hours later on the morning of July 19. The police made it clear that they had priority calls to act on and would not be able to come back and escort him again.

Senior Investigator Brown was told on Saturday, July 19 in the morning after the police had escorted Mr. Garcia that a plan was needed to help these animals. The dogs could not be left locked in crates.

Investigator Brown said he would return to the property Sunday, July 20 around mid-day. He was told that would be 26 hours AFTER the dogs were last let out. He said he would not return until mid – day the next day.

Humane Initiative called Investigator Brown at 10:50 am on Saturday, July 19 asking him to please do something and I reminded him it was unacceptable that those dogs be left for that length of time. I asked for his Manager’s name and contact information. Investigator Brown said multiple times: “I am going to use my legislation and my legislative authority to the best of my ability. I am facing limitations in terms that I am in remote area and I am working independently”.

I asked him if municipal animal services was available to assist – Investigator Brown said “absolutely not”.

Once off the call, we immediately emailed AWS Manager Christopher Chew. NO RESPONSE HAS BEEN RECEIVED TO DATE.

On Sunday, Mr. Garcia decided to remove the remaining dogs by a friends trailer. Investigator Brown put every obstacle in Mr. Garcia’s way to make transport difficult. A lawyer was brought in by an animal welfare colleague to call Investigator Brown. After more measures were undertaken by Mr. Garcia to ensure the dogs were secure he drove away.

ONTARIO ANIMAL WELFARE SERVICES ARE THERE TO PROTECT THE ANIMALS. IN THIS CASE, THE ANIMALS WELL BEING WAS NO WHERE NEAR THE FOCUS !!!!!!

Instead of building a collaborative plan to best protect and care for the animals…Investigator John Brown got mad that his weekend was disrupted. Whined about being under resourced and having his hands tied by the legislation.

His Manager, Christopher Chew was NO WHERE to be seen. Would not reply to pleas for help.

THIS IS A DISGRACE !

There is NO WHERE NEAR the resources required to protect the animals in this province.

Ontario has 100 inspectors for the ENTIRE province. Manitoba has the same number and they are 1/10th the size of Ontario.

Ontario Animal Welfare’s annual budget is $27.1 Million – 100% taxpayer funded

Over 70% of that budget goes to salaries.

Less than 15% goes to protective services.

The field resources cannot or will not troubleshoot their way out of a paper bag. There appears to be no collaboration of agencies in any way.

AND THROUGH IT ALL …. THE ANIMALS CONTINUE TO SUFFER !!!!!

CALL TO ACTION, PLEASE CONTACT:

• AWS Chief Melanie Milczynski
  • Email: Melanie.Milczynski@ontario.ca
  • Tele: 416.433.3540
• AWS Manager Christopher Chew
  • Email: Christopher.Chew@ontario.ca
• Solicitor General Michael Kerzner
  • Email: Minister.solgen@ontario.ca
  • Tele: 416.717.3125
• Premier Doug Ford
  • Email: Premier@ontario.ca
  • Tele: 647.612.3673