Click here for The Paws Act:
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/19p13
In March 2019, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) informed the provincial government it would no longer enforce animal cruelty laws, focusing instead on other endeavours such as its shelter operations, adoptions and public education. The move followed a court decision in January 2019 that declared the charity’s enforcement powers unconstitutional. Since 1919, the province had provided the OSPCA police powers in order that the charity could enforce the laws on behalf of the province. However the province had done so without imposing reasonable standards of transparency and accountability.
In response, the province devised the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Acts (The PAWS Act) and it went into effect January 1, 2020. Upon roll-out, there would be 100 cruelty inspectors with increases as required.
Now this was mostly a cut/paste job from the OSPCA days BUT the government did promise stiffer penalties for cruelty and a more consistent enforcement model throughout the province. Under the bill, there would also be specialists who will deal with livestock, horses and zoos and aquariums. The province indicated that Crown attorneys would be trained to deal with animal cruelty prosecutions. These were new elements lacking under the OSPCA umbrella.
Animal advocates were hopeful that a corner had been turned. As animal cruelty was now finally being addressed via a publicly funded, cohesive framework with greater transparency, accountability and Crown involvement, there were two elements that are cornerstones to animal welfare: sentience and standards of care. It was hoped that finally animals would be designated as sentient beings. An acknowledgement that animals have the ability to “feel”; feel pain, joy, distress, fear, loneliness. This acknowledgement would then naturally lead to animal protections that account for this. Foundational Standards of Care would be strengthened to provide inspectors with clear and measurable markers of compliance that would aid greatly in the prosecution of cruelty cases.
Unfortunately, that is not what we are seeing and encountering a half dozen years since inception. Many advocates have voiced great disappointment and horror with the poor legislation, broken promises for improvements, lack of resourcing and a complete lack of transparency and accountability from the government.
Along with very poor legislation, under resourced and inadequately trained inspectors along came COVID. This created the “perfect storm”. Unethical individuals wanting to cash in on a locked down society started breeding companion animals at out of control numbers. Puppy mills and backyard breeders existed before COVID but during the pandemic the number of unethical breeders grew exponentially.
The new PUPS Act passed in the summer of 2024 is very vague and the result is weak legislation. The government has included no avenue to identify the breeders in any way despite feedback from multiple experts in the field. So in essence, authorities are still completely in the dark which means the dogs in unethical breeding situations are not protected and the consumers who these breeders prey on are still as vulnerable to buying dogs that are unhealthy or have genetic defects.
Ontario now finds itself in the worst animal welfare crisis we have ever seen. Shelters are at overcapacity, rescues are drowning trying to help animals and the government refuses to acknowledge their role in this dire situation.
And we are not going to sugar coat the situation. We are in an animal welfare crisis.
But we firmly believe that this can be turned around. With open eyes, open hearts and increased public awareness to demand change we can make substantial improvements in animal protection.
But first….we must acknowledge what is broken !