International Fund for Animal Welfare Releases Report: Canada Bottom of List of 14 Countries for Animal Cruelty Legislation

Not surprising as this is the country that still carries out the bloody and cruel annual baby seal slaughter - http://geari.blogspot.com/2005/04/comprehensive-list-of-canadian.html

Article:

International Fund for Animal Welfare/Falling Behind: Canada's Shame in International Anti-Cruelty Comparison

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=817203

Canada has placed at the bottom in a comparison of animal cruelty legislation in 14 countries prepared by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

"Canada has a reputation for being compassionate and caring, yet this report demonstrates how woefully inadequate we are when it comes to basic legislation designed to protect animals from cruelty," said Kim Elmslie, IFAW Canada Campaigner.

Facts revealed in the report include:

- 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.

"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," said Ms Elmslie.

Canada's poor ranking comes as politicians are about to vote on Bill S-203-a Bill which utterly fails to improve anti-cruelty provisions, simply increases penalties.

"Better penalties do not make better laws. Bill S-203 maintains the loopholes and inadequacies that currently means less than a quarter of one percent of animal cruelty cases lead to successful convictions-the perpetrators simply walk free," said Ms Elmslie.

"As Canadians we should be embarrassed by this result. Canadians are overwhelmingly calling for better anti-cruelty legislation. It is time our politicians listened-they must vote against Bill S-203 and for legislation that will help restore our pride as a nation that condemns animal cruelty."

Legislation from 14 countries-Austria, Canada, Croatia, Great Britain, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland and the Ukraine is examined in the report Falling behind: An international comparison of Canada's animal cruelty legislation.

Copies of the report are available online at http://www.ifaw.org/.