Hope for humanity and wildlife

She didn't try and make her case to the public. Instead, Hope Swinimer was prepared to defend her actions and her reputation in a courtroom this week. And in the end, the Crown and the Judge delivered justice to the woman who has committed her life to helping animals.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Now, I was more than alittle surprised to see that Hope Swimmer was
scheduled to be in court this week. It was on a list of stories
that were being covered, and theincredible Steve Bruce from the Chronicle Herald was
going to be reporting on it.Not knowing the backstory, I couldn't,
for the life of me get myhead around why this woman who's been giving
her entire life to helping animals andpeople might have run a foul of the
law. While the story turns outto be even more incredible than I first

(00:25):
imagine. Hope for Wildlife is thesanctuary animal hospital and rehabilitation facilitian Seaforth,
and Hope is the woman who hasbuilt that up from her one person operation
over the last several decades. It'snow a team of volunteers and others who
nurse injured and sick animals back tohealth so they can be returned to the
wild when they're able or if they'renot. This team of caring creatures spent

(00:46):
a lot of time caring for thesecreatures to make sure their shortened lives are
less painful. And she tells mewhen she first started, she had a
visit from someone from Department of NaturalResources informing her she was breaking the laws.
In Nova Scotia, wildlife was supposedto be wild. People warn't a
lot to take them in, evenif it was to take care of them
for rehab. But she says theywere able to come to an agreement and
they wrote up a one page documentthe first of the province that gave her

(01:08):
the permission to do what she didso well, and that's care for critters.
And from there that's grown to severalhundred pages of guidelines and criteria restrictions
about what she can and can't do. And she's clad for rules, and
she knows and understands that certain speciesare off limits, that she's not allowed
to have them on her property andseaforth and they include brown bears, moose,

(01:29):
adult white tail deer, and coyotes. And that last one is the
one that put her in front ofa judge this week. She explains,
there was a flurry of calls atJanuary morning, twenty twenty two. Coyote
had been hit by a car inProspect. It was in dire condition,
and knowing she couldn't legally care forit, she kept directing people to contact
Department of Natural Resources, and shesays before they showed up, one of

(01:51):
her volunteers who lived in that communitytook action. As Hope says, she
got the call as the car andthe coyote were essentially at the end of
her driveway. So then what didshe do well, she says, she
couldn't let an animal suffer, soshe took it in and it was given
medication to help ease the pain.Not long after that it passed away,
but as she says, at leastit wasn't suffering, and when the by

(02:14):
law enforcement people later showed up,she was arrested, charged for violating her
agreement with the province. Instead ofmaking it a public case, she took
responsibility and was prepared to make hercase in front of that judge, and
she says there were extenuating circumstances evenas she knew she was wrong. Well,
this week the Crown offered no evidence, saying even though they were confident

(02:34):
they could have gotten a conviction,it wasn't in the public interest to try
the case, and so ended thelegal battle for the Order of Nova Scotia.
Recipient hopes Swinemer she is as classyas she is caring, and in
the end there was justice for thewoman who loves animals and has made it
her life's work. Thank you forall you do. You give us all
hope for the future of wildlife inNova Scotia. I'm Sheldon McCleod for Saltwire.

(03:02):
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