The province of Ontario just published their 2025 Annual Report.
Under the section named “Animal Welfare Services Achievements” they speak about how proactive they are. See the below:
Preventing distress through proactive compliance
AWS promoted education and compliance through proactive inspection and enforcement activities. In 2025, the Specialized Compliance Unit conducted 183 inspections of commercial facilities such as zoos, aquariums and pet-related businesses.
Together, these examples demonstrate the essential role AWS plays in Ontario’s animal welfare system. Whether responding to immediate distress, managing complex investigations, preventing harm through proactive compliance or supporting rehabilitation and rehoming, AWS interventions protect animals when other safeguards are insufficient.
This work underscores the importance of a strong, provincewide animal welfare enforcement system, one that promotes responsible care, prevents suffering and supports public confidence in Ontario’s approach to animal welfare.
Sadly, what the province does not talk about or reference in any way is the impact that their decision to NOT requiring domestic (dogs/cats) breeders or sellers to be licensed…meaning ON THEIR RADAR has had.
Since the PAWS Act came into being (Jan/2020), animal welfare advocates have pressed the Ministry of the Solicitor General (Michael Kerzner) and the Chief Animal Welfare Inspector to bring in a licensing requirement for dog/cat breeders and resellers (aka brokers). This government has refused.
We have pressed them to require selling platforms (such as Kijiji) to bring in strict seller identification protocols to ensure there is true traceability for the consumer and animal health officials to follow if an animal is ill or has a dangerously contagious virus for example – parvo. This government has refused.
WHAT CAN A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC DO?
Email Addresses to paste into your email :
- Solicitor General Michael Kerzner: Minister.solgen@ontario.ca
- AWS Chief Melanie Milczynski: Melanie.Milczynski@ontario.ca
- Premier Doug Ford: Premier@ontario.ca
- Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles: MStiles-QP@ndp.on.ca
Email Body, simply copy/paste into your email:
Dear Premier Ford, Minister Kerzner, Chief Milczynski and Leader Stiles:
Having just reviewed the 2025 Annual Review for Provincial Animal Welfare Services I am disappointed to see that this government fails to see the value of licensing domestic animal breeders and brokers.
Additionally, you continue to discount the very apparent need to protect consumers from scams and from buying sick or contagious animals from unethical breeders/brokers.
These protections would be achieved by requiring animal selling platforms such as Kijiji to make seller identification requirements more strict and transparent to add true traceability. Requirements such as all animals selling account holders to provide government issued identification – not simply a generic, untraceable email address that currently exists.
We look to you to bring in laws and policy that protect the people of this province.
By continuing to turn your back on these consumer protections you are saying clearly it is not important to you.