Bill C-10 is currently making its way through Canadian Parliament. It will change the way animals are perceived in the Canadian Criminal Code, changing them from property to autonomous beings. This will bring stricter penalties and higher levels of enforcement in cases of animals cruelty. Unfortunately, animals raised for food on factory farms, or those killed as sport in hunting and fishing are not covered under this legislation. The death of these animals is considered both legal and necessary. What this bill would prevent, or at least ensure the assailants could be prosecuted more fully, is arbitrary, illegal, and unnecessary animal cruelty. Even animals on farms and in the wild would be protecting against extreme cruelty not necessary for the end for which they are being killed.
To read about some of the forms of extreme and unnecessary farm cruelty the bill would protect against, click HERE.
The following is a NS story about recently cruelty to dogs. Under Bill C-10, the shooter in this story could be charged with a more severe crime and face higher penalties for his actions than he would now.
CAPE SABLE ISLAND, N.S. – SPCA officials are investigating the shooting
of a
dog in southwestern Nova Scotia.
Someone shot a four-year-old black Labrador six times, and left it by a
road
on Cape Sable Island.
"This is one of the most blatant acts of cruelty I think I have come
across in
a long time," says Mavis Haycock, with the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals.
Two men were walking back to their truck along the southside of Cape
Sable
Island Wednesday afternoon when they found the dog, struggling to get
up.
The men rushed it to a veterinarian in Barrington Passage.
The dog has made it so far. The vet will operate Friday to remove the
bullets.
The incident is the second case of animal cruelty in the area over the
last
couple of weeks.
A puppy was found New Year's Eve, stuffed into a box along the side of a
road
in Yarmouth County. It has since been adopted by a family.
