Stop Animal Cruelty in Canada: Support Anti-Cruelty Laws

Additionally, IFAW’s report “Falling Behind – An International Comparison of Canada’s Animal Cruelty Legislation”  which compared Canada’s legislation with 12 other countries around the world revealed some startling facts including:

• Canada is alone in offering virtually no protection for wild and stray animals
• Canada’s legislation does not include a clear definition of ‘animal’ while other countries are explicit
• Canada is the only country that does not provide protection for animals being trained to fight each other
• Canada is the only country that makes it virtually impossible to prosecute cases of neglect.

However, despite all of the public pressure, many of our elected officials chose to pass Bill S-203 on April 9th 2008, which continues to leave animals largely unprotected from cruelty.  S-203 is an ineffective piece of legislation because it:

• allows animal abusers to walk free
 
• allows cruelty to wildlife, stray and feral animals
• allows crimes of neglect to go virtually unpunished
• allows the cruel reality of breeding and training of dogs for dog fighting

We need to continue to make our politicians aware that stopping animal cruelty is an important issue to Canadians.  Please contact your MP and let them know that you want effective and modern animal cruelty legislation now.