Ontario Court Justice William Horkins has found law professor Diane Way guilty of cruelty to animals following the 2011 discovery of horrifying conditions inside her Manor Rd home near Servington Crescent. It is a tale of pain and suffering for 60 or more cats housed at Ms. Way’s home and for the humiliation she felt about the conditions there — but which she was unable to correct. Judge Horkins concluded that the home had become a nightmare: “Wall to wall cats; floors, walls, furniture rotting and coated in cat urine, cat fur and cat feces. The smell was literally overpowering,” he said this week in his judgement.
DEAD BODY?
“The first officer on the scene thought there might be a dead body inside the house.” Hours later, as OSPCA staff in hazmat gear were in the process of removing a feral colony of 107 cats from the home, homeowner Diane Way returned with a pull-cart full of cat food. Judge Horkins said that Ms. Way loved her cats “not wisely, but too well”. Horkins found Way, 67, guilty of cruelty to animals and causing or permitting unnecessary suffering to animals. Beyond the awful conditions of the animals — cats crusted in fecal matter and suffering from eye and lung infections — court heard that Ms.Way was too embarrassed with the fearful slum she had created to even call a plumber to restore water to the home after a pipe ruptured.
STOPPED STERILIZING
As reported by Metro News, things began to get out of hand in 2009 when Way took in several stray cats in addition to her three kittens, she testified. When she stopped sterilizing the cats and taking them to the vet, the population grew from 19 in 2009 to 107 two years later. She testified she had lost track of how many cats there were by then, estimating the number at 60. Way said she turned off her water after a pipe sprung a leak, too embarrassed to call a plumber. She said she slept on a couch in the living room, and would “wake up in a sea of cats,” Horkins said.
CITY HALL DID NOT HELP
The South Bayview Bulldog reported at the time that the first call to 911 came from an election canvasser who was worried that the dreadful smell indicated a dead body. The fire department came prepared to try to resuscitate a possible victim. The call to 911 was the trigger that brought the end of the agony not just for Ms.Way and the cats, but for the neighbours who had complained many time to City Hall but had had their cries ignored. As unhappy as they were, neighbours had not called 911 or police. It is an instructive story.
