The Standards of Care are of critical importance as they form the very foundation of any animal welfare model.
They are the what, how, when, where and why of caring for animals. They are the guidelines, the boundaries to ensure animals are being treated in a humane manner. The standards should also address the species specific needs because the ultimate goal of any animal held by humans is that they are permitted to live a life most natural to them as possible.
A pillar of Humane Initiative’s belief system is The Five Freedoms. They are globally recognized as essential freedoms all animals should exist by:
https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/health/five-freedoms-animals
In 2007, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) produced A Code of Practice for Canadian Kennel Operations (see link at bottom). This has evolved into a 3rd edition published in 2018 and is generally viewed as the industry standard for standards of care in a kennel setting. The CVMA standards address all aspects of a dog’s life from environment, food, shelter, well being, husbandry (genetics, breeding, whelping) right through to end of life care. The Five Freedoms are addressed as part of the standards.
Ontario’s animal welfare legislation (PAWS Act) does not align with the standards of care that the CVMA recommends.
The Ontario provincial government instead chose standards that are vague and subjective making it difficult for animal welfare inspectors to accurately measure compliance and in turn making enforcement and justice difficult – some will say virtually impossible.
As well, animals are widely recognized by the public and some legislative bodies as SENTIENT BEINGS – meaning having the capacity to feel, perceive and experience. This recognition has changed the way people interact with animals and how they gauge the level in standards of care that an animal deserves whether those animals are family pets, farm animals, in capacity or wild.
Unfortunately, the province of Ontario has chosen not to accept that animals are sentient beings. Meanwhile, they acknowledge “distress” within the legislation and legal statutes. So in order for an animal to experience distress, the animal must feel. If they possess the ability to feel, then they are sentient. This seems very clear to us.
The government knows that if they officially recognize animals as sentient, this will draw attention to other areas where animals are kept such as the agriculture industry, research laboratories etc and they are unwilling to have those areas scrutinized due to special interest groups.
Like the province, many municipal kennel bylaws have an opportunity to hold their licensee’s to the standards laid out in the CVMA Codes of Practice but choose not to. Instead of having one standard that is clear, measurable and enforceable, many municipalities choose to have (if they have any) very opaquely worded requirements that again are very subjective.
CVMA Code of Practice for Canadian Kennel Operations:
https://spca.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/CVMA-2018-Kennel-Code.pdf