Animal Cruelty Legislation

Animal Welfare and Justice stakeholders, Canadian Parliamentarians and the Minister of Justice have acknowledged that the current state of animal protection legislation is lacking and that a more comprehensive view to protecting animals and vulnerable people is needed. However, two decades of experience shows that updating the Criminal Code in this regard is time consuming, difficult and a lightning rod for opposition. While a comprehensive update is desirable and necessary, Humane Canada and its partners propose a pragmatic and measured effort to make better use of the existing law with key, targeted updates to improve the state of the law in the near term.

Understanding the challenges of modernizing the Criminal Code, Humane Canada has undertaken a series of actions to support the administration of justice in this area by addressing non-legislative barriers to investigation and prosecution of animal-related offences, namely the creation of the National Centre for the Prosecution of Animal Cruelty (NCPAC) and the Canadian Violence Link Coalition. NCPAC brings together a forum of  Crown Attorneys who engage in training, share specialized information, and houses a database of case law that assists prosecutors in using the existing provisions of the Code effectively.

The Canadian Violence Link Coalition is a network s supported by a series of conferences that brings law enforcement, social services, academia, government and animal welfare professionals together to better understand and act on the linkages between cruelty to animals and violence against vulnerable people.  Recent studies in Canada confirm the high rate of co-existence of animal maltreatment and gender-based violence and the co-relation od animal abuse to the more severe forms of human abuse – both physical and sexual:

• 89% of participants report their abusers engaged in animal abuse;
• 65% report their abuser used physical harm to their animals to control, coerce or punish them;
• 14.5% report their abuser killed their animals;
• 56% of women who flee violence report delaying leaving their abusers due to concerns about the family pet;
• 1/3 of those who do flee report returning to either check on the family pet or to move back in with the abuser because of the pet;
• 82% of bestiality cases involve the sexual abuse of a child.

However, our social system and our criminal justice system still struggle to integrate these two forms of violence into a single response, which would result in a more effective and cost-effective way to prevent and reduce crime.

Recommendations

Changes to the Criminal Code should clarify provisions and provide more concrete protections. Ideally, a broader dialogue with the humane sector, law enforcement officials, Crown Prosecutors and social service providers can provide detailed guidance on pragmatic near-term measures that promote evidence-based decision-making and the sound administration of justice including but not limited to the following:

1. Review of the Criminal Code animal cruelty provisions and more specifically addressing animal sentience, modernizing the neglect offence, rationalizing penalties and allowing for the disposition of seized animals.
2. Increase the effectiveness of the Criminal Code in recognizing the links between crimes against people and crimes against animals by including animals as victims in Section 2 and adding animal cruelty as an aggravating feature of other offences.
3. Identifying resources to enable training for enforcement, crown and judiciary on animal crimes and the links to human crimes.
4. Reviewing and appropriately updating data collection systems to ensure there is adequate data on animal crimes and violent crimes including a requirement for cross reporting between child protection and animal protection agencies.
5. Recognition of the direct links between animal crimes and interpersonal violence and the inclusion of animal protection experts in consultations and the development of strategies to prevent and address gender-based violence.