**Update: The weapons charges against Fred Brokop were stayed in November 2018**
Police and peace officers responded to a property on the southern edge of the city on Tuesday in connection to an animal cruelty investigation and a 56-year-old man is now facing charges.
Bylaw, fish and wildlife and police officers descended on a rural property in the 8300 block of 150th Avenue S.W. at about on 8:00 a.m. Tuesday.
A search warrant was issued under the Animal Protection Act and 40 dogs, cats, birds and reptiles were seized by humane society investigators.
Officials say the animals were in distress when they were removed from the property.
“What we encountered on the property were environmental conditions that would cause distress, unsanitary conditions, lack of water available to the animals as well as medical concerns that were found both on the scene and by examination afterword,” said Brad Nichols, Senior Manager, Animal Cruelty Investigations. “That remains part of the investigation to tie these animals to their owners.”
Nichols says they were alerted to the property by another agency.
“We certainly had some intelligence previous to the execution of the warrant, again, early on in the investigation, all I’ll say at this point is some front-end work went into the warrant,” he said.
The seized animals are now being treated at the Calgary Humane Society and officials believe they will recover.
“There are behavioral concerns with some of the animals as well but at this stage of the game, we don’t have all the veterinary input, but from what I saw yesterday, it does seem like it’s repairable,” Nichols added.
“I was there on initial inspection of the land and believed, in fact, due to smells and what I saw these animals were absolutely under distress. In fact, in the 31 years that I have been a police officer, I’ve not seen such a disgusting and dirty environment to live as humans and also to raise animals,” said CPS S/Sgt. Guy Baker.
Police were brought in to assist as it is a large property and there were some safety concerns.
“We are not armed other than with batons and so where we have safety concerns or where we’re executing a warrant we do always take Calgary police with us to keep the peace. With this file here there were some concerns and there was also a very large scale property that was hard to contain,” said Nichols.
The CPS Tactical team led a search of the area and recovered 20 long rifles scattered throughout the property.
Fred Albert Brokop, 56, of Calgary is charged with one count of breaching a court order and 15 weapons-related charges.
“Over 40 police officers were working diligently on this investigation as well as 15 partner enforcement agencies,” said Baker.
Brokop pleaded guilty to two previous animal abuse allegations and his name appears on the Calgary Humane Society’s prohibition list.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, March 14, 2018.
