A More Humane and Safer Ontario

Social Sciences, 2022

This (open access) paper offers the first overview of the Canadian animal cruelty investigations landscape. First, the public and private sector organizations responsible for enforcement are explained, followed by examination of the implications of this patchwork for reporting suspected cruelty. Key statistical data are presented about the types of issues and cases and investigator responses. Initial recommendations are then proposed, and the value of the animal harm spectrum is discussed, including how it can be mobilized to strengthen the operations of animal protection work and animal welfare policy across nations.

Animals, 2020

(Open access paper) There is a dearth of research on animal cruelty investigations policy and work, despite its importance for protecting animals from illegal forms of cruelty. This study provides baseline data about the approach used in Manitoba, one of the only Canadian provinces where animal protection is publicly funded. By integrating statistical and qualitative data collected through interviews with key informants, this paper elucidates how animal cruelty investigations are organized and undertaken in the province. Although animal protection in Manitoba is publicly funded, the workforce responsible for undertaking investigations is a cross-section of public and private actors with different occupational classifications and working conditions.

Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being, 2022

This paper examines the landscape of animal cruelty investigations in Canada. Building on six years of mixed-methods research, we first outline the enforcement organizations and investigations process. Then we identify three challenges for jurisdictions across the country: the unevenness of forensic veterinary expertise, differing levels of Crown awareness and engagement, and relative availability of community-based programs and services to solve problems and prevent harm. We argue that further development of all three areas, including through strengthened multi-sector collaboration, will increase the effectiveness of animal protection, better protect vulnerable people, and augment public safety.

2012

The Alberta SPCA has released a landmark research report, Inside the Cruelty Connection: The Role of Animals in Decision-Making by Domestic Violence Victims in Rural Alberta. The study by Drs. Donna Crawford and Veronika Bohac Clarke, culminates a year-long survey of 296 women residing in five rural and suburban women's shelters in the Canadian province. The 116-page study addressed three main concerns: (1) how ownership of companion or livestock animals affects the decision-making of domestic violence victims; (2) how children are impacted by animal abuse; and (3) what steps can be taken to address the animal abuse/domestic violence links. While most of the findings are not dissimilar to studies conducted in other North American jurisdictions, they nonetheless point out the difficulties encountered in such situations. Key findings include: • 36% of abused women with animals reported that their abuser threatened and/or harmed animals-and 85% of such threats were carried out. • 85% of women with children whose animals were threatened reported that the children witnessed the incident-and in half of those cases, it was considered to be the child's own pet. • 27% of abused women with animals were afraid to seek help out of concern for their animals; more than half of these delayed leaving because of their animal(s). "As the provincial humane society, the Alberta SPCA has a unique perspective of the multi-faceted relationships between people and animals in all areas of the province. This project harkens back to the birth of the humane movement in Alberta, when in 1904 Louise McKinney encouraged humane education and formation of humane societies as a way to counteract domestic violence. We are proud to continue in that tradition," said Tim Battle, Director of Education. To move forward, the SPCA has formed a multidisciplinary group to examine the obstacles and gaps in service, and to suggest solutions that won't add to the burden of organizations currently helping both human and animal victims of domestic violence. The Alberta Alliance for the Safety of Animals and People (AASAP) is comprised of professionals from the law enforcement, social services, veterinary, health, animal welfare, legal education and other communities.

This project contemplates achievement of substantive equality for animals through legislative reform and policy change. I have drafted a comprehensive bill that comes into force in two stages to recognize how far removed we are from the overarching legislative goal of treating animals as moral equals today. The first stage consists of a transitional period of progressive endeavors to foster the incremental attitudinal and institutional changes necessary for the second stage, which prohibits all forms of animal exploitation, requires humans to take animal interests into account, and imposes positive duties on humans with animals in their custody or care.

Manitoba Law Journal 42(4), 2019

As society evolves, so too does the values and views of its citizens. While changing social values have allowed lawmakers to pass new laws and amend existing ones, our laws on animal abuse have changed very little. Sections 444 to 447 of the Criminal Code constitute Canada’s primary federal animal protection legislation, and all provinces and territories have laws in respect to animal welfare. However, recent debate involving socio-legal and animal scholars alike agree that Canada’s animal cruelty laws are considered the worst in the Western world. Drawing upon a litany of socio-legal and green criminological literature, this Paper examines the current understanding of ‘animal cruelty’ in Canadian federal legislation, the justifications for and against advancing progressive animal welfare reforms, and the necessary steps to be taken to further protect animals from harm and hold animal abusers accountable.

Society & Animals, 2016

Focusing on local government and non-governmental nonhuman animal welfare organizations, this paper reports survey results on institutional policies, interpretive frameworks, and practices regarding companion animals in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The findings suggested that local governments and animal shelters use different interpretive frameworks of companion animal welfare, with the former taking a human-centric position and the latter focusing on animal well-being. The results showed that most local governments are not well engaged with animal welfare issues. Instead, these issues are more often dealt with by non-governmental organizations that operate on limited budgets and rely heavily on volunteer labor. Whereas federal and provincial governments are responsible for legislating companion animal welfare, practical implementation of animal welfare has been largely the responsibility of nongovernmental organizations. Our findings demonstrated that the ways that animal welfare policy is interpreted and enacted at the local level have significant implications for animal well-being more broadly.

Alberta Law Review, 2003

There has been a progressive change in western philosophical thought regarding animals. While animals were once regarded as objects, valuable solely in relation to their use to humans, there is now a substantial movement to recognize animals as inherently valuable and deserving of the same moral status as humans. Thus change in attitude is not reflected in amendments to the Criminal Code anti-cruelty provisions. Vie new provisions recognize that animals have the capacity to feel pain. However, the provisions do not protect animals independently of the benefits that animals provide to humans. Still categorized as property, animals do not share the moral status of humans. Further, under the new provisions, animals do not have legal rights. Therefore, despite changes in the law regarding animals, no animal liberation is taking place.

2009

This report outlines the allocation of powers and responsibilities relevant to animal health in Canada. It will review the relevant federal and provincial heads of power under the division of powers in the Canadian Constitution, the statutory framework relevant to animal health at the federal and provincial/territorial levels, the international legal framework, and a review of relevant case law and academic literature.

Canadian Veterinary Journal-revue Veterinaire Canadienne, 2022

Mandatory reporting laws in relation to animal maltreatment are a specific kind of regulatory enactment that imposes a duty on a specified group or groups of persons to report knowledge of animal mistreatment to enforcement officials. In Canada, they are administrative (non-criminalizing) Provincial Statutes with sanctions for non-compliance. Most veterinary reporting laws are similar in intent and form to child welfare reporting laws, and include a clause to protect mandated reporters from civil liability when reporting in good faith. Mandatory reporting laws reflect societal commitment to an enhanced legal framework to protect the vulnerable. They are evolving and flexible instruments of social policy, whether the vulnerable individual is a non-human animal, a child, the elderly, or other valued individual unable to protect themselves from avoidable harm. Mandatory reporting statutes communicate the intent of society to maximize early detection and prevention of injury to the vulnerable. Mandatory reporting laws generally identify classes of people, where due to the practice or nature of their profession, it is reasonable for them to more frequently correctly identify incidents of or high risk of avoidable harm. The benefits of a regulated profession are accompanied by a heightened community responsibility to report. Most Canadian provinces require veterinarians to report knowledge of animal abuse or neglect to provincial enforcement agents (social norm). Furthermore, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) has opined that veterinarians with their special skills, knowledge, and access to animals in the private arena have a moral obligation to society to report “animal abuse” (professional norm). The question of what situations would reasonably trigger the obligation to report are not well-documented in the literature. This paper briefly reviews the history of mandatory reporting of child and animal abuse, then uses a case example to demonstrate the evidence-based (analytical) and affective (intuitive) components inherent in clinical decision-making in veterinary mandatory reporting ......