A dog suffocates to death with its mouth taped shut. A cat dies screaming in a microwave oven. A horse collapses as it is being dragged behind a farm wagon and is savagely beaten with a slab of wood. A kitten is hurled to the ground and its skull deliberately stepped on and crushed. According to the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS), these are neither isolated cases nor the most sensational ones to come its attention. Every year humane societies and animal protection organizations across Canada receive thousands of complaints of mind-numbing mistreatment of animals. Often there is little the authorities can do about it. The section of the Criminal Code that deals with such offences was enacted more than a century ago and has never been substantially modernized. The CFHS, representing more than 100 member organizations nationwide, has been campaigning for years to get the federal government to do something about it. Its efforts may be about to pay off.
Spurred on by thousands of letters and petitions from a public outraged by reports of animal cruelty, Justice Minister Anne McLellan introduced Bill C-17 in December last year. The legislation is designed to bring the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code into the 21st century primarily by ending the classification of animals as "property" and switching the legal emphasis from the degree of suffering of the animal to the brutality of the perpetrator. Where courts at present may impose fines of no more than $2,000 and jail sentences of no more than six months, serious cases in the future could result in imprisonment for up to five years, increased fines at the discretion of the judge, and a lifetime ban on owning animals. The basic cruelty provisions of the Code would continue as before-a point the CFHS is anxious to emphasize. "The new law is not aimed at standard practices in the food industry or about the hunting of wild animals or even a householder's right to kill mice, rats and other pests," says Robert Van Tongerloo, Executive Director of CFHS. "The law already makes it a crime to intentionally cause unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal and that does not change." The suggestion by the Canadian Sport Fishing Industry Association that hooking a worm for bait might be an offence under the new law demeans what humane societies are trying to achieve", Mr Van Tongerloo adds. "We simply want to be able to go after those people who consciously commit acts of cruelty against animals. Common sense dictates that this is not about things like using worms for bait." Bill C-17, which is scheduled for second reading shortly, targets cruelty, vicious killing, and killing without lawful excuse. Other features in the proposed legislation include giving courts the right to order an abuser to pay costs incurred in taking care of an abused animal. That¡¯s welcome news for veterinarians who give aid to suffering and for financially squeezed SPCAs. Some have been saddled with individual bills as high as $60,000 for vets, shelter, food and care.
The CFHS says that as things stand, legal obstacles combined with limited investigative resources result in less than one per cent of animal abuse cases going to court. The conviction rate is not encouraging, either. In one recent 12 month period, 362 criminal charges were laid across Canada. Only 167 (46 per cent) resulted in convictions. The rest were stayed or withdrawn, or disposed of in some other way. For instance, the man who ground the cat's head to a pulp with his boot was acquitted because the Crown was unable to prove that the cat was "owned."

