Animal Cruelty Legislation

Your support is paying off and while it may seem like a slow process we are making changes that will have lasting impact on animal welfare in Canada.

Thanks to your donations, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies has been working hard to press to modernize Canada’s outdated and inadequate animal welfare laws.   We can report to you that this work has reached a critical point.

We have to act now if we want to take advantage of the best chance we’ve had to modernize Canada’s animal welfare laws in over 100 years!   

On February 25, 2016 MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith brought a bill to the floor of the House of Commons that will ensure those who abuse or hurt animals get the maximum sentence possible and that all animals have a humane life and death.   Bill C-246 is an opportunity that we must act on now!  

Already fellow MP’s and special interest groups are publicly making comments that are designed to cloud the issue and confuse the public.   Those who support the bill are being called radicals and being accused of trying to destroy traditional ways of life and end all animal consumption in Canada.   Instead of focusing on making an animal’s life worth living they are focusing on interpretations and future unintended consequences of giving animals protection.

The CFHS is taking a leadership role in not only advocating for this bill to pass on Parliament Hill but in educating Canadians on how to show their support and what this bill really means.   This means not only being on Parliament Hill to answer questions for our MP's but also we need to be in front of the Canadian Public talking about the importance of these proposed changes. 

Modernizing the Criminal Code of Canada is long overdue and it is one of the most important steps we can take to ensure those who abuse or hurt animals get the maximum sentence possible and that all animals have a humane life and death.

What does Bill C-246 do for animals? 

• It closes loopholes making it illegal to breed or train animals to fight
• It stops people from profiting from animal fighting
• It creates a gross negligence offence for animal cruelty making it easier to prosecute cases such as deplorable puppy mill conditions, where it can be difficult to provide that the owners wilfully intended to neglect the animals or cause harm.
• It creates a new offence for killing an animal “brutally or viciously” regardless of whether the animal dies immediately.   You’ve heard in the news about the case of the owner who killed his dog with a baseball bat and was acquitted by the judge because the dog died immediately without suffering.  This provision closes that loophole.
• It increases the penalty for repeat animal cruelty offences and it lets judges ban abusers from owning an animal for life!
• It defines bestiality as sexual conduct between a human being and an animal so sexual abuse of animals can be prosecuted no matter what the act and will not be legalized because of an interpretation of the law.

Bill C-246 is an opportunity that we must act on now!  

Right now, we estimate there are more than 10 million cats and almost 6 million dogs in Canada.  More than 696 million animals are raised every year in our country for food. 

Canada offers virtually no protection for wild and stray animals and severe and on-going neglect of farm animals continues to be tolerated.

If we don’t speak for them who will?

Your donations allow us to educate the Canadian Public and mobilize them to be active and to reach out to their MP's to fight hard to modernize Canada's animal welfare laws.   

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