Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Monday, February 4, 2008

Canadian Animal Cruelty Laws Lag Behind Other Countries'

The International Fund for Animal Welfare issued a report comparing Canada's animal cruelty laws to the following countries': Austria, Canada, Croatia, Great Britain, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland and the Ukraine.

It placed last. Even behind Portugal and the Ukraine. That's bad.

Here are some of the findings:

- Canada is alone in offering virtually no protection for wild and stray animals

- Canada's legislation does not include a clear definition of 'animal' while other countries are explicit

- Canada is the only country that does not provide protection for animals being trained to fight each other

- Canada is the only country that makes is virtually impossible to prosecute cases of neglect.


According to IFAW-Canada,"Canada's anti-cruelty legislation hasn't been updated since it was written in 1892-when it was enacted by Queen Victoria. While countries around the world are updating their legislation to better protect animals, Canada seems content to stay in the dark ages."

As an American who admires so many things about Canada, this is shocking and disappointing.

Photo by Insomniac101.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

who said"a nation can be judged by the way it treats its animals"?Someone like Schweizer. He is right on. The chinese must be the worst offender.Google the video "Chinese culture of cruelty."

ProudCanadian said...

It might be time to update your blog.
There have been significant changes in the animal cruelty legistation in the last year. I still believe much more can be done and I am working hard to make that so.
You were right to be harsh with your comments. Countries like Canada and the U.S. should be leading the way in animal cruelty laws, instead we seem to be lagging behind.
Before I leave you, I just want to fix the quote stated by Anonymous. I think the quote he/she is searching for is one by Gandhi and it states that "the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated"
here! here!

Anonymous said...

It was Gandhi who said " a nation can be judged by the way it treats it's animals"

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