‘A campaign of malice:’ BC dog rescue claims defamation, judge disagrees

A BC woman who runs a dog rescue organization has lost in court after she sued a dog trainer for defamation because of comments made on social media.

According to a Sept. 17 BC Supreme Court decision, Lisa Gaye Eeckhout who runs Furever Freed Dog Rescue Society took legal action against dog trainer Donna Toews because of comments she’d made on Facebook.

Eeckhout runs Furever Freed Dog Rescue Society, an organization that rescues stray and at-risk dogs from other countries and bringing them to Canada for adoption.

Toews runs Reflection Pet Services and had questioned the organizations work online, while the two had never met.

The decision said in 2022, Eeckhout sent Toews’ a cease and desist letter for more than 20 statements she’d made on Facebook.

In her court filing, Eeckhout said Toews accused her of importing dogs from Mexico and selling them and being a “dog broker.”

“(Eeckhout) also attributes (Toews) as publishing statements against the Society that it is ‘unethical,’ ‘importing aggressive dogs,’ ‘abusive to our rescued dogs,’ ‘dog flippers’ and that the dogs come from ‘puppy mills,'” the decision read.

One statement said Eeckhout brags about selling 600 dogs a year.

In February, following an application from Toews, the court ordered Eeckhout, who also goes by the name Lisa Gaye McGaillard, to hand over copies of all bank statements, credit card statement and PayPal records showing Furever Freed Dog Rescue Society payments to overseas partners, including kill shelters in California and dog rescues in Korea.

It’s unclear if the information was ever used in court and Eeckhout chose not to cross-examine Toews during trial.

In June, Toews cross-examined Eeckhout on the alleged defamatory statements.

However, Eeckhout said she had not brought her glasses so couldn’t read her affidavit.

“When given an opportunity to go to the pharmacy across the street and obtain appropriate glasses, she refused,” the decision read.

When asked about some of the statements Eeckhout had said were defamatory she said she didn’t recognize some of them and acknowledged that some of the posts didn’t involve Toews.

“Ms. Eeckhout further agreed that the screen shots she attached as the alleged defamatory statements pertaining to ‘FurBaby Rescue Bewares’ were not defamatory to her or the Society as that references a different rescue group,” Justice Lindsay LeBlanc said in the decision.

While Eeckhout claimed Toews had engaged a “a campaign of malice” the Justice found a there was no evidence Toews was behind a large number of the posts, “other than Ms. Eeckhout’s belief.”

Toews also submitted screenshots where Eeckhout had said, “Would you like a lawsuit with that?”

“Another undated post calls a Facebook member a troll and welfare case and identifies that Ms. Eeckhout previously sued this individual,” the Justice said. “In another undated Facebook post, Ms. Eeckhout posted a photograph of service of legal documents on an individual.”

While Eeckhout argued the statements were based on malice and intended to tarnish her reputation, the Justice didn’t agreed.

“I accept that the defendant has shown that the statements relate to a matter of public interest. The statements relate to the dog rescue community, which invites public attention and debate,” the Justice said.

The Justice did find one statement was made by Toews. In it she said it would be cruel to have a dog participate in the Vancouver Home Show after recently arriving in Canada.

However, the Justice said the statement wasn’t defamation.

“There is likely a range of opinions on whether dogs should participate in such events. Some of those opinions may favour participation and some might be against it,” the Justice said. “It is merely an opinion, which falls short of defaming the reputation of the (Eeckhout).”

Ultimately, the Justice threw the case out, leaving Eeckhout to pay the court costs.