Puppy Mills = Puppy Cruelty

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 and allow us to shut down puppy mills and charge their owners, ensuring they can no longer cross provincial boundaries and set up new operations where they continue to abuse animals. 

But to finally be able to do this we have to find out just what we are dealing with!   Puppy Mill owners hide behind ads on line and in papers and move from province to province after being found and charged so that they can continue their operations.   The support we've received so far has helped us build a framework for a report that will establish the extent of the problem.  We know what we have to do and what information we need to collect but now we need to be able to bring someone in house to be able to do the research so we can produce this much needed report!   

The report is one step but while creating this report we need to work to get changes to Canada’s animal welfare laws so that we can ensure once these puppy millls are found, we can maximum penalties for abusers and shut them down permanently. The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies has been working hard to press to modernize Canada’s outdated and inadequate animal welfare laws.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.

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.   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.

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 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 closes loopholes making it illegal to breed or train animals to fight
• It stops people from profiting from animal fighting
• 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!

Your support has helped us get to this point and has brought us one step closer to being able to make lasting change to end puppy mills in Canada!     We know that it will take a few years to make this change happen and we will need your continued support but we will end the cruel conditions that breeding dogs are forced to endure!   Your continued support will allow us to work with our members, Humane Societies and SPCA's across Canada to ensure puppy mills are shut down and their owners charged and prosecuted successfully.

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On Thursday of last week I was horrified, as I’m sure you were, to find out about the latest seizure of dogs from a puppy mill, this time operating in Langley B.C.

Sixty-six suffering dogs were found with broken limbs, missing eyes or ears, infections, abscesses, malnourishment, dental disease and psychological issues living in deplorable conditions un-cared for and neglected with fur caked in feces.  

According to the BC SPCA, 34 puppies and 32 adult dogs were living in small crates and cages stacked in dark, unheated buildings with dangerous ammonia levels resulting from accumulated urine.

It’s been reported that some of the puppies produced in this environment were being sold for upwards of $1,000.00 and were some of the most expensive and sought after breeds of dogs.   This family-run operation was nothing more than a factory churning out puppies for profit, with zero regard for their well-being.

This situation cannot continue!     We are seeing over and over again this type of operation pop up across the country and our members having to step in and seize these animals who have endured a horrendous life.

We have no reliable Canadian statistics on the scope of puppy mills; all we have are best guesses.   We have to expose the puppy mills that operate behind glossy websites and innocent looking Kijiji posts.  Canadians need to understand the extent of abuse that results from puppies being treated as commercial products in a country where animals aren’t adequately protected under the law.   We have to educate consumers who are purchasing these animals to make the right choice and to help us stop puppy mills.

This report will ensure everyone who cares about this issue will have solid arguments and numbers to use in their work towards better laws and policies in Canada. This kind of research has been needed for years and, at CFHS, we're doing something about it.   This report will help us understand how big the issue is in Canada and provide solutions’ to address it.

As a national organization with no core funding, we can't take on a project of this size without donations from the public. That's why you’re support has been so important and we hope we can continue to count on you to make this project a reality.     We’ve been able to take the first steps but we need to make concrete progress and we need to make it now.

Your donation will help shut puppy mills down.

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