Animal Cruelty Legislation

With every hour that ticks by and day that passes, we grow closer and closer to Parliament shutting down and animals lives hang in the balance.

We are racing against the clock to ensure two critical pieces of animal welfare legislation don’t fall by the wayside: Bill C-84 which will strengthen protections against bestiality and animal fighting, and Bill S-203 which will put an end to the captivity of dolphins and whales.

In a tumultuous political time, it is all too easy for animal welfare to be pushed lower and lower down the legislative agenda. We need you to help us ensure that doesn’t happen… And I can promise we will fight until the very last second to get these important bills made into law.

Animals cannot advocate for themselves. So we must advocate for them.

Bill C-84 seeks to strengthen the bestiality and animal fighting sections of the Criminal Code, removing loopholes that have benefited violent offenders.

This is a vital piece of legislation I have personally been working on for many years. I was devastated to see these proposed protections removed from government consideration a number of years ago, and I will be devastated if history repeats itself now when parliament prorogues.

The link between violence towards animals and violence towards children is well-documented and deeply troubling.  We know now that there are high rates of concurrent animal and child sexual abuse – a phenomenon known as the “Violence Link”.

When the Supreme Court effectively reduced bestiality to an act of penetration in 2016, they left some of the most vulnerable members of our society at risk: animals and children. When sex crimes towards animals cannot be prosecuted despite video proof based on a technicality of the law, we know something has to change.

On May 8^th, we were thrilled when the House of Commons unanimously accepted Bill C-84’s passage. It’s now headed to the Senate and we look forward to keeping you updated. After all, it’s your support that has brought the Bill this far!

The upcoming election has taken over the Parliamentary agenda, and we are often fighting an uphill battle to get the attention and focus animal rights legislation needs.  

You might recall Quanto’s Law, which amended the Criminal Code to protect law enforcement animals, military animals and service animals and to ensure offenders who harm those animals or assault peace officers are held fully accountable.

Humane Canada supporters helped us advocate for that bill until the last possible second – and Quanto’s Law received Royal Assent the same day parliament was prorogued before our last federal election.

That’s why, in addition to watching Bill C-84’s move to the Senate, we’re also relentlessly pushing forward Bill S-203, which would outlaw the captivity of whales and dolphins.

Shocking footage of orcas and belugas languishing in freezing cold pens off the coast of Russia came to our attention late last year. These poor captive animals were likely intended to be sold to aquariums.

We cannot allow our country to support this kind of inhumane treatment. Whales and dolphins are meant to swim free, not confined within glass walls for the entertainment of humans.

Bill S-203 was passed in the Senate chamber and reached the House of Commons where it saw two readings before heading to committee. We were told the committee was unlikely to leave the legislation intact – and any revisions would require the entire bill to be sent back to the Senate for review. That would have been a crushing blow, essentially eliminating any possibility of the bill becoming law this year.

But thanks to advocates like you, we showed the government the importance of Bill S-203 and it passed through committee unamended. More than 22,000 calls were made and emails sent by Humane Canada supporters to their MPs and senators in the span of less than two days!

It was an incredible and inspiring turn of events… And we were thrilled when it made its way to Third Reading earlier this month. We’ll be using that as our motivation to continue pushing for its passage in parliament until there is no longer a parliament in session.

 We cannot let the wellbeing of animals come second to the political disagreements of humans.

I can promise you we are more committed than ever to making Bills C-84 and S-203 a reality. 

To follow the developments on these and other bills follow us on social media @humanecanada

Links:

• How updated animal protection laws protect all Canadians