Salmon Arm Law Courts

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

ENDERBY - A dog breeder and trainer in the North Okanagan says she will fight a pair of animal cruelty charges in court.

Shalah Nelson, owner of K9 Instinct Adventures and Erlastyn Kennels, was charged earlier this summer with killing or injuring an animal and causing unnecessary pain or suffering in connection with an offence dated Dec. 21, 2016 in Enderby.

Nelson made her first appearance in Salmon Arm Provincial Court Aug. 1. A trial date has been set for May 28, 2018.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dan Moskaluk confirmed charges were laid but would not comment on specifics because the case is before the courts.

Nelson says she was shocked by the charges and will be fighting the allegations in court.

“In my 16 years of experience, I have never been charged with any animal cruelty,” Nelson says. “This was very surprising.”

She says the incident is not related to either of her businesses and the dog in question did not belong to a client.

Without going into specific details, she says the dog showed up at her property — where she runs a doggy daycare — last winter and wouldn’t leave. She says she attempted to find the owner on social media and also contacted the B.C. SPCA and dog control. Neither got back to her, she says, because it was Christmastime.

“(The dog) was running around loose and intact,” she says. “He stayed for days and days on end.”

She wouldn’t comment on specific allegations of what happened to the dog but says “this was by no means trying to be cruel, it was simply trying to get the dog to leave my property.” She says the dog is "alive and he is well."

Nelson says going through the criminal charges has been “absolute hell.”

“I wasn’t looking to harm the dog whatsoever,” she says.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

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