No Animals Left Behind - Help Them Escape Violence

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 a critical pieces of animal welfare legislation doesn’t fall by the wayside; Bill C-84 which will strengthen protections against bestiality and animal fighting.

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. 

I can promise you we are more committed than ever to making Bill C-84 a reality.

Together, we will amplify our voices until the urgent need for this law is heard by the decision-makers in parliament.

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

Links:

• 2019 Canadian Violence Link Conference
• How updated animal protection laws benefit all Canadians

Humane Canada and Ottawa Police Services have completed Canada’s first ever training for front-line officers, as well as partner and sexual assault and child abuse detectives on the link between violence against humans and animals.

This training saw 48 officers from across Ontario receive training from noted forensic psychiatrist Dr. Peter Collins and animal behaviour scientist Dr. Rebecca Ledger.

Officers learned about the link between violence against people and animals, the psychology of perpetrators and how the link relates to conviction and sentencing.

Animal abuse cases have nuances that police officers do not normally deal with, and knowing what to look for will help determine if people are also being abused in the home. This can be lifesaving information.

Our goal is to make this training available to police forces right across Canada, and your support will ensure that we can continue to press forward on this important work.

This work is part of the advances made after the first Canadian Violence Link Conference held in Ottawa in 2017. We are excited to announce that a follow up summit has been scheduled for November 21-22, 2019 in Toronto where we will again be convening this important meeting of the minds to further Canada's work on the violence link. This conference will examine the link between violence against humans and animals, looking at the vulnerabilities in both populations and how various sectors can learn from each other and gather the necessary tools to stop the cycle of violence.

Links:

• 2019 Canadian Violence Link Conference