It wasn’t until after animal cruelty investigator Sara Munoz drove a kilometre down a dirt road — alone, out of cellphone range — and asked an angry dog owner to put his hatchet down that she found out he was also wanted on murder charges.

Every day across Ontario, inadequate funding is putting animal protection officers like Munoz at significant risk of violence and abuse on the job, and creating dangerous and “frankly shocking” work conditions, a new report has found.

Despite acting as the main enforcers of the province’s animal protection laws, investigators with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals cover huge swathes of the province alone due to understaffing, do not have access to government intelligence databases, and do not have adequate communications equipment — jeopardizing the safety of the group’s predominantly female workforce, the study warns.

“A majority of workers who participated in the focus groups explained that they feel it is only a matter of time before an OSPCA officer is killed,” according to the report to be released Monday.

The research, which was funded through a grant from Brock University, surveyed 64 per cent of the 90 cruelty investigations staff at the organization — which still operates as a non-profit charity even though its staff are law enforcement agents with full authority to uphold animal protection legislation, including obtaining warrants and laying charges.

But unlike other law enforcement agencies, animal protection investigators are not equipped with two-way radios despite often working in remote areas with no cellphone service. They do not have access to the Canadian Police Information Centre — meaning they “rarely know in advance if they are approaching individuals with weapons, an otherwise volatile or dangerous situation, someone with a serious mental health disorder, or people in crisis.”

“The fact that so many officers make animal cruelty investigation their career and stay for years or even decades despite the very challenging conditions is a clear indication of their commitment,” said report co-author Kendra Coulter, a professor of Labour Studies at Brock University.

“But these workers and the animals of our province deserve better.”

Since 2012, the Ontario government has provided $5 million a year for OSPCA investigations, but the funding covers less than a third of the organization’s animal protection budget, according to the report, co-authored by Amy Fitzgerald, a professor in the department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at the University of Windsor.

As a result, there are not enough resources for officers to work in pairs. Staff told researchers they could sometimes drive 11-hour round trips in a day to respond to a single complaint. The report found that staff frequently experienced threats, noting that animal cruelty “may be isolated or part of a larger pattern of abuse and violent behaviour.”

“Some of the time we’ll receive a call and it’s about a situation for the animal, but it’s also an abusive situation for either the wife or the children,” said Brad Dewar, who works with Munoz as an OSPCA inspector in the GTA.

Munoz and Dewar have entered homes inhabited by everything from a pair of 1,200-lb. crocodiles to an irate African wild cat. But they said seeing both humans and animals in crisis weighs most heavily on them.

Once, Munoz says, she responded to a call about a dog in medical distress — but arrived to find three developmentally delayed teenagers living alone in a home littered with rotten food and garbage. Their mother had passed away and their father had been missing for weeks.

“I dealt with the dog issue in five minutes,” she said. “But I couldn’t walk away leaving those kids in that situation.”

“There’s so much on a day-to-day basis that you see that you can’t just shut off when you go home,” adds Dewar

The OSPCA currently receives around 18,000 complaints a year and over 30,000 calls. Around 90 people across the province work on cruelty probes for the organization, and 62 per cent of them are women.

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OSPCA Chief Inspector Connie Mallory said she was grateful for the government’s $5 million annual commitment, which has allowed for improvements like better training and uniforms. But, she says, it is not enough to allow for appropriate staffing levels and equipment to keep her people safe.

“Full funding for inspectors is something we really need,” she said.

Investigators hired directly by the OSPCA start at $19 an hour and receive benefits but no pension. Over half of the investigations staff work for affiliates where pay is usually lower and no benefit packages are available, the report says. Unlike most law enforcement bodies, it is a largely non-unionized sector.

Dewar said animal protection investigators’ pay was significantly lower than other law enforcement agents, and estimates that about 80 per cent of his colleagues take on second jobs to pay the bills — a testament to their commitment.

“There is not one person working here that’s doing it for the pay cheque,” he said.

“Alongside explanations of the intense conditions of their work, some of which are unacceptable and alarming, we heard moving stories of kindness and compassion, most of which go unnoticed by the public,” Coulter added. “This is a workforce which manages to do a lot, with few resources and uneven public support.”

Key recommendations in report:

Government funding for two-way radios or spot trackers for all OSPCA field officers.

Significantly more public funding for cruelty investigations.

New BlackBerrys donated to the OSPCA to ensure reliable non-emergency communications.