Former horse owners charged with animal cruelty now face arrest warrant

An arrest warrant has been issued for a couple after they failed to appear in P.E.I. provincial court for the sixth time on animal cruelty charges related to a massive horse seizure from their property last year.

Last November and December Department of Agriculture and Forestry officials seized 41 horses at the property of TawniFrank and George Smithon Byrnes Road near Morell.

• 41 horses seized from eastern P.E.I. property

Frank and Smith were charged in the spring under the criminal code with causing pain or injury to an animal and under the province's Animal Health and Protection Act with causing distress.

The couple wasscheduled to answer to the charges in Georgetown provincial court most recently on Thursday morning.

Their lawyer Peter Ghiz told the court he hasn't been able to reach them. He said the couple is living somewhere in the United States but has changed their phone numbers and haven't responded to his emails.

He then withdrew as their lawyer and Judge Nancy Orr put out a warrant for their arrest.

Crown attorney Jeff MacDonald says, to the best of his knowledge, Frank and Smith are New York state residents.

Unless the couple returns to Canada or there's an extradition order to get them back in the country, there's little the courts can do, he says.

"When you commit a number of resources to an investigation, which is really well done, and then to have the accused basically abscond during the plea process, it's incredibly frustrating."

Earlier this yearFrank and Smithfiled for P.E.I. Supreme Court judicial review of the seizure's legality.

Under the Animal Health and Protection Act seized animals' owners are liable for the cost of the seizure and subsequent veterinary care and housing. The Department of Agriculture has recorded that the seizure and treatment of the animals cost nearly $100,000.