An Ontario Superior Court judge has found some of the enforcement powers held by the province’s animal welfare agency to be unconstitutional, and says the government has 12 months to rewrite laws to remedy the situation.
Jeffrey Bogaerts, a paralegal from the Perth, Ont., area who has an interest in animal welfare law, launched the constitutional challenge five years ago after helping several animal owners who were being investigated by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), including a woman whose pet dog was seized. […]
“Although charged with law enforcement responsibilities, the OSPCA is opaque, insular, unaccountable, and potentially subject to external influence, and as such Ontarians cannot be confident that the laws it enforces will be fairly and impartially administered,” Minnema wrote in a decision released Wednesday.
Minnema said the OSPCA appears to be an organization that fulfils public functions without being held accountable like other police organizations that have to comply with the Police Services Act, the Ombudsman Act and freedom-of-information laws.
The judge also said he doesn’t see how the relevant sections of the OSPCA Act could be easily modified to make them compliant with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He noted 21 sections of the OSPCA Act that are “of no force and effect” and suggested the act might have to be re-written from scratch.
In British Columbia, dog owners are being harassed on the street by BCSPCA extremists for walking their dogs in garden variety choke collars.
More at National Post.
I am surprised that happened. After the CSA was granted ownership and control of all the laws it has lobbied for, shouldn’t the SPCA likewise be granted ownership of all the laws affecting animals?
So fortunate that it’s a Conservative gov’t that’ll rewrite this, hopefully they don’t just rubber stamp any other’s provincial legislation.
Dr. Ho’s Pain Therapy unit gives you a bigger “jolt” on level 2 than any electronic dog collar. E-collars are not meant for punishment, but for behavioural modification. Used correctly, they save a lot of dogs’ lives.
It’s well beyond e-collars. The BC SPCA is trying to have any collar with a choking mechanism made illegal, including millions of simple leather, nylon and chain slip chokes.
And the intended effect of such ban would be the elimination of dog shows.
I smell a rat.
“An unlikely ally in the court case against the provincial government was Animal Justice, a national legal organization that fights for animal rights. Its lawyer had intervener status in the case.
“Camille Labchuk, the organization’s executive director, said she’s pleased with the ruling…
“Labchuk said the decision only deals with the enforcement of animal welfare laws, and she argued tougher legislation is needed to protect animals.
“‘Animals can’t report abuse and are often behind closed doors on private property and they can’t be adequately protected,’ she said. ‘We need substantive laws about improving animal welfare.'”
So the issue was that the OSPCA wasn’t nearly extremist enough for the liking of animal rights cranks.
If I hear one more weepy-narrated, tear jerking, sad soundtracked, infomercial begging for $$ from the SPCA … I’m gonna get one of those TV’s that edits out all the commercials. All I hear when one of those infomercials plays, is blah, blah, blah … “we kill more animals than we save” … give us your $$
We have 2 YOUNG Jack RussellS that can be almost uncontrollable at times. At the suggestion of a trainer we use prong collars. They work WONDERS. The dogs are excited to have them on and they don’t cause ANY injury or discomfort for the dog BECAUSE THEY ARE AWARE OF WHAT COULD HAPPEN. One of the dogs is extremely hyper yet with the prong collar on he is very calm. Its kinda like using spurs on a horse.It gets their attention more than anything. While spurs (and prong collars) appear to be capable of injury, if you ever examine a horse after its been ridden(by a conscientious rider) you cannot see any evidence of a spur being used. Now if the rider-or dog owner is an idiot all bets are off. They probably shouldn’t even own animals.
A twitch works wonders for a horse as well.
It is worth noting that this marathon fight was fought by Jeff Bogaert, Tom and Marlene Black and the executive of the Ontario Landowners’ Association. Congratulations to them and their lawyer, Kurtis Andrews.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, and the National Farmers Union were no where to be seen – apparently quite content to continue letting the OSPCA harass and persecute their memberships.
My thoughts exactly Jamie. Those Landowner folks put in an awful lot of hard work, time and money to engage in a very difficult and daunting uphill legal battle. The “government accredited” farm organizations kept their heads down in the long grass and ignored the home invasions, the exorbitant fees and fines, and all other brutal transgressions by McGuinty’s Gestapo-OSPCA. I’m pleased to learn of this ruling, and I applaud Mr. Bogaerts and the Blacks, et al. as well. They are true heroes, who selflessly and repeatedly, step up to defend the rights of rural citizens.
I had some Canadian bitch ask me at an Oregon store whether the collar I was using was a choke collar. She was quite strident about it. She STFU and her husband snickered when I asked if would like a personal demonstration. You wanna be militant, I’m not a easy target.