We would like to share with you a letter we just wrote to provincial elected leaders and key decision makers regarding how Ontario’s animal welfare crisis is out of control. The current situation is unsustainable.
Manitoba just passed legislation that will require individuals who choose to sell/transfer ownership or place advertisements to sell/transfer ownership of companion animals for sale to require a license. This is not to be confused with a breeders license.
See the letter below sent to: Premier Ford, Solicitor General Kerzner, Attorney General Downey, NDP Leader Stiles, NDP Critic Stevens, AWS Chief Milczynski and other associated parties outlining the need for Ontario to step up and bring in supporting legislation to the governments highly touted PUPS Act.
Good morning,
I wanted to share with you both Manitoba’s decision to bring in ground breaking legislation that will required individuals who to look to sell, transfer ownership or advertise for the above purposes of a companion animal the need to obtain a license. (See Bill 19 – Animal Care Act below).
We applaud Manitoba first for identifying that their province is in an animal welfare crisis (as Ontario is) and acting to introduce legislation to specifically address a key contributing factor to this crisis – breeding and selling of live companion animals.
They are addressing this by introducing the requirement (via Bill 19) that individuals who wish to sell, transfer ownership or advertise companion animals (for sale/transfer) obtain a licence.
This is a critical step in instilling meaningful and tangible protections for animals.
This is a step the government of Ontario has refused to consider despite a multitude of stakeholder input over many many months that without a licensing mechanism the PUPS Act is virtually meaningless and makes enforcement and the pursuit of justice unobtainable.
Along with front end licensing we also ask that you consider what we have brought forward to Ministry of the Solicitor General Policy Advisors in meetings – the need to oversee the other end of the “pipeline” – the selling platforms such as Kijiji.
Ontario is drowning in an animal welfare crisis that has never been seen before. Rescues are reporting the current situation is unsustainable.
Stakeholders (rescues, advocacy groups) have identified unregulated breeding/selling and the lack of easily accessible low cost spay/neuter clinics as main contributors to this crisis – a crisis with no light at the end of the tunnel without the governments leadership.
The other element is the governments responsibility to protect consumers from fraudulent and unethical breeding/selling practices.
We are seeing some forward movement but without licensing as mentioned before, The PUPS Act will do nothing to curb out of control, unethical breeding and selling.
Consumers remain vulnerable and ripe for fraud, buying desperately sick animals and the animals themselves remain unprotected.
We welcome the opening of collaborative discussions to improve the protections behind The PUPS Act.
THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP
Your voice is so important…you can copy the above letter, create your own email, paste it in and in the TO: line put in the following email addresses:
- Premier@ontario.ca
- Minister.solgen@ontario.ca
- MStiles-QP@ndp.on.ca
- attorneygeneral@ontario.ca
- Melanie.Milczynski@ontario.ca
- KWong-Tam-QP@ndp.on.ca
- Nicolas.Dimarco@ontario.ca
- Bethlehem.Telahun@ontario.ca
- Joseph.Chekole@ontaro.ca
- JStevens-QP@ndp.on.ca
One thought on “ONTARIO’S ANIMAL WELFARE CRISIS”
A step in the right direction. Well done Manitoba. Hopefully the other provinces will get on board.
I’m gutted that the country of Canada, who I love so much, is one the worst in the world when it comes to Animal Welfare- it doesn’t reflect the true feelings of the citizens who reside here. It’s the fractional group that profit at the expense of the lives of animals that black mark our country.