Former mink farmer disappointed with verdict in Break and Enter Case

Jeff Green | Apr 14, 2021

Last fall, Walter Freeman decided that since he had turned 65 it was time to shut down the mink farm that has been a part of his life since he was a child. His grandfather started up the mink operation at the family farm on Battersea Road, very close to Battersea itself, in 1957.

“The legend goes that my grandfather caught a mink on Loughborough Lake, brought it home and convinced his neighbour to buy a mate and that's where the farm started up,” said Walter, as he was loading frozen dog food into the trunk of a customer as part of the “Raw Dog Feed” business that he still operates at the site.

Over the years the mink operation, which was a hobby at first, became the main Freeman family business and was run by Walter's father and uncle for years. He ended up taking over.

The mink were kept in small cages, within covered barn-like open buildings, all within the regulations that are set out in government regulations.

“At one point we had a pretty large operation, but we downscaled over the years as the price of pelts dropped and by the time I closed down last fall it was smaller.”

As part of the mink operation, Walt Freeman sourced meat from slaughter houses as feed. About 15 years ago he started a side business selling dog food under the banner “Raw Dog Feed” which he is still operating at the site. He has sold off all the mink, and is in the midst of selling off some of the equipment at the farm as well.

The farm was never hidden, but it never had a large public profile. That is until a Youtube video was posted and an article appeared in the Whig Standard three years ago in 2018. The video of minks in cages, had been taken on August 1, at night.

Klimovics was charged with “Break and Enter with intent to commit mischief”.

A trial took place last fall and Justice Julianne Parfett reserved her decision until last week, when she ruled that the Crown had not proven the case against Mr. Klimovics.

In her ruling, she said that in order to convict, all elements of the charge must be established byoind a reasonable doubt, and while Klimovics certainly unlawfully broke into the Freeman property, the crown did not prove that he had the intent to commit mischief.

The Crown, and Freeman himself, considered that attempting to harm him by distributing video which was intended to damage Freeman's reputation and the mink industry constituted intent to commit mischief, but the judge took a more restrictive view of mischief. Because Klimovics did not touch anything and did not leave anything behind, Judge Parfett ruled that no mischief or intent to commit mischief had taken place.

The judge was critical of much of the defense case, however, saying that Klimovics broke in in order to show that the Freeman farm was in breach of the regulations pertaining to mink farming.

“A lot of evidence was led at trial concerning whether Mr. Freeman complied with the Code of Practice in relation to mink farming and/or the requirements of the Ontario Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals Act. There was insufficient evidence at this trial to conclude that Mr. Freeman had knowingly breached any of the requirements of the Code of Practice,” the judge said.

Before the verdict was delivered, Walter Freeman had been hopeful that the case would establish privacy rights for farm operations, and he was dissappointed with the verdict.

“This should be about harassment from the animal rightists who believe their rights to inspect livestock outweigh a farmer’s right to privacy. In my opinion, Bill 156, which was enacted in 2020, too late to apply to this case, is a reasonable response from our government to this kind of invasion,” he said.

He hopes this will address a double standard in law and in the way this story was covered in the media.

“Can you imagine someone breaking into a Walmart or a doctor's office and taking video of something they don't like, getting coverage on the front page of a newspaper about what they found, even if they found nothing illegal, and not having the fact that they broke in illegally featured in the story.