Post by DogGoneGood on Apr 3, 2008 15:15:45 GMT -5
PG Citizen
April 3, 2008
The Associated Press
OTTAWA – Proposed new animal-cruelty legislation is nothing but a weak update of a bad law from the horse-and-buggy era and shouldn’t pass, animal protection groups argue.
Representatives of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies and the World Society for the Protection of Animals said Canada’s animal-cruelty laws haven’t been changed in more than a century and it’s time to bring them up to date.
But the proposed changes contained in a Senate private member’s bill now before the House of Commons don’t make the grade, they said at a news conference. They urge MPs to say no when it comes to a vote.
They said the legislation simply raises the penalties in cruelty cases, but doesn’t tighten up the laws.
“Bill S-203 is merely 1892 legislation adjusted for inflation,” said Shelagh MacDonald, program director for the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies. “It leaves all the gaping loopholes and the offences unchanged.
“There is really very little value in increasing penalties when less than one per cent of animal abuse investigations result in a conviction.”
For example, she said, the law requires proof of “willful neglect” and that wording makes convictions extremely difficult.
She said Michael Vick, the disgraced NFL quarterback jailed in connection with a dog fighting scandal in Virginia, might have gone scot free in Canada.
“He would likely not have been prosecuted for his involvement in dog fighting,” she said. “Under today’s Criminal Code, it is not an offence to train animals to fight nor to receive money from dog fighting. It is only an offence to engage in animal fighting and people must be caught in the act.”
Successive governments have been trying to update the cruelty laws for almost a decade. The Chretien government came close in 2003 with a bill supported by animal protection groups, farm and trapping organizations, vets and research labs, but it was derailed in the Senate.
“Now we’re looking at a bill that has nowhere near that level of support,” said MacDonald.
Kim Elmslie of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said her group commissioned a study comparing Canada’s animal cruelty laws with those in a dozen other countries, including Malaysia and the Philippines.
“Canada ranked at the bottom,” she said.
This really makes me ashamed to be Canadian… that law about how it’s just fine and dandy to train animals to fight or to receive money for it but you can’t watch it is absolutely ridiculous and isn’t the first silly law I’ve heard like that in Canada. Just recently I was reading about how it’s not illegal to download music on the internet but it IS illegal to distribute it. With the way torrent and other downloading programs/sites work if this was actually enforced it would be impossible to download music without other people distributing it and therefore this law is completely stupid. The only way to crack down on something like that is to make it illegal to download music as well. Not trying to compare animal cruelty to downloading music in the least; it’s a completely unrealistic comparison because if you ask me animal cruelty is far worse than downloading a couple of songs, my point is simply that Canada needs to do away with these absolutely ridiculous laws filled with loopholes. Both laws I’ve mentioned are useless for the same reasons; in order to crack down on dog fighting (or downloading music I suppose) you need to stop it at it’s source. This means make it illegal and make the punishments/fines much harsher than they are for SUPPLYING; for training animals to fight; for reviving money for putting on such disgusting events; and for downloading music (I suppose…).
I also really think that animal cruelty charges towards young kids should actually be much harsher and that whole ‘under aged’ thing shouldn’t cushion them at all. The fact is, in MOST cases where kids are found torturing animals those kids have serious mental illness etc. and grow up to be the very same people who start doing that sick and twisted crap to people. Something as sick and twisted as animal cruelty should not go unpunished, especially for younger people because if you ask me, if you can do something so sick without feeling an ounce of guilt or compassion towards another living thing you’ve got serious problems that NEED to be dealt with.
April 3, 2008
The Associated Press
OTTAWA – Proposed new animal-cruelty legislation is nothing but a weak update of a bad law from the horse-and-buggy era and shouldn’t pass, animal protection groups argue.
Representatives of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies and the World Society for the Protection of Animals said Canada’s animal-cruelty laws haven’t been changed in more than a century and it’s time to bring them up to date.
But the proposed changes contained in a Senate private member’s bill now before the House of Commons don’t make the grade, they said at a news conference. They urge MPs to say no when it comes to a vote.
They said the legislation simply raises the penalties in cruelty cases, but doesn’t tighten up the laws.
“Bill S-203 is merely 1892 legislation adjusted for inflation,” said Shelagh MacDonald, program director for the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies. “It leaves all the gaping loopholes and the offences unchanged.
“There is really very little value in increasing penalties when less than one per cent of animal abuse investigations result in a conviction.”
For example, she said, the law requires proof of “willful neglect” and that wording makes convictions extremely difficult.
She said Michael Vick, the disgraced NFL quarterback jailed in connection with a dog fighting scandal in Virginia, might have gone scot free in Canada.
“He would likely not have been prosecuted for his involvement in dog fighting,” she said. “Under today’s Criminal Code, it is not an offence to train animals to fight nor to receive money from dog fighting. It is only an offence to engage in animal fighting and people must be caught in the act.”
Successive governments have been trying to update the cruelty laws for almost a decade. The Chretien government came close in 2003 with a bill supported by animal protection groups, farm and trapping organizations, vets and research labs, but it was derailed in the Senate.
“Now we’re looking at a bill that has nowhere near that level of support,” said MacDonald.
Kim Elmslie of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said her group commissioned a study comparing Canada’s animal cruelty laws with those in a dozen other countries, including Malaysia and the Philippines.
“Canada ranked at the bottom,” she said.
This really makes me ashamed to be Canadian… that law about how it’s just fine and dandy to train animals to fight or to receive money for it but you can’t watch it is absolutely ridiculous and isn’t the first silly law I’ve heard like that in Canada. Just recently I was reading about how it’s not illegal to download music on the internet but it IS illegal to distribute it. With the way torrent and other downloading programs/sites work if this was actually enforced it would be impossible to download music without other people distributing it and therefore this law is completely stupid. The only way to crack down on something like that is to make it illegal to download music as well. Not trying to compare animal cruelty to downloading music in the least; it’s a completely unrealistic comparison because if you ask me animal cruelty is far worse than downloading a couple of songs, my point is simply that Canada needs to do away with these absolutely ridiculous laws filled with loopholes. Both laws I’ve mentioned are useless for the same reasons; in order to crack down on dog fighting (or downloading music I suppose) you need to stop it at it’s source. This means make it illegal and make the punishments/fines much harsher than they are for SUPPLYING; for training animals to fight; for reviving money for putting on such disgusting events; and for downloading music (I suppose…).
I also really think that animal cruelty charges towards young kids should actually be much harsher and that whole ‘under aged’ thing shouldn’t cushion them at all. The fact is, in MOST cases where kids are found torturing animals those kids have serious mental illness etc. and grow up to be the very same people who start doing that sick and twisted crap to people. Something as sick and twisted as animal cruelty should not go unpunished, especially for younger people because if you ask me, if you can do something so sick without feeling an ounce of guilt or compassion towards another living thing you’ve got serious problems that NEED to be dealt with.
