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Manitoba ranks highest again in prosecuting animal cruelty; Nunavut ranks lowest

Sled dogs rest on the frozen Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit in this file photo. (Reuters)
Sled dogs rest on the frozen Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit in this file photo. (Reuters)

For the fourth year in a row, Manitoba is the worst place in Canada for animal abusers to be.

Last month, the Animal Legal Defence Fund – founded in 1979 by a group of attorneys eager to foster the legal protection of animals – rated all 13 Canadian provinces and territories on the strength of their animal protection laws.

Manitoba – again – came out on top.

“Manitoba is doing a variety of really good things,” Aileen White, director of communications for the Winnipeg Humane Society, tells Yahoo Canada.

“They’ve reviewed the Animal Care Act a few years ago, and made changes which are fantastic. Every step that helps catch and prosecute animal abusers is a very, very good thing. And obviously the Humane Society applauds that.”

She points to harsher sentencing in the courts as one of the reasons why. In 2010, a Manitoba couple were charged with animal hoarding in a horrendous case involving 61 neglected and abused dogs on one property. The judge imposed jail time, a fine and a ban on owning animals.

“For a judge to actually give all three of those was incredibly progressive,” White explains. “And we’ve seen, since then, other cases where judges have given a heavier hand. And that’s a big deal, because that is going to be meaningful – and have greater impact, we hope – with people who are abusing animals.”

White says the Humane Society welcomes all the legislative help it can get, because it is tightly constrained within the boundaries of the city – even though they end up treating abused animals from all over the province.

“We just can’t go blasting in like commandos outside of Winnipeg. And that’s where we rely on having that very tight and effective relationship with the province, because that’s what they are allowed and able to do, and that’s where we can support them.”


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White cites illegal puppy breeding as a particularly horrendous source of animal abuse in Manitoba. She says more tools are still needed in the fight to put the breeders out of business.

“I can’t stand them getting away with it,” she says.

“We know they’re out there somewhere, but we don’t know who’s doing it, and we don’t know where they are.

“There is so much going on. It pulls everyone’s resources quite thin.”

While Manitoba continues to progress, Quebec has consistently been the worst-ranked of the provinces where animal protection is concerned. New legislation is coming that may finally improve things there.

The most chronic animal protection problem lies far to the north, where the territory of Nunavut has finished dead last every year since 2009. There are far fewer resources in the eastern Arctic. The challenge of protecting animals there is immense.

“Nunavut continues to really lack the capacity to address all sorts of issues,” says Janelle Kennedy, president of the Iqaluit Humane Society.

“Look at the other statistics related to Nunavut: on mental health, our rate of suicide, child abuse, abandonment. We’re still ranking the highest in all of those categories. The territory lacks the capacity to really address the needs of people – and animals.”

I had the good fortune to be a reporter with CBC Radio in Iqaluit in 1986. I can tell you that up there, the population is tiny; the isolation immense. And the weather – most days of the year – can kill.

“Our job is extraordinarily difficult – even when we have eyewitness accounts,” Kennedy says.

“Our enforcement officers and the RCMP find it difficult sometimes even to press charges when children are abused. So you can imagine that they’re not going to get very far if they witness someone abusing an animal.”

And even successful prosecutions can have terrible repercussions.

“If they start laying charges all over the place, they still have to live in that community. We have had incidents where RCMP are cornered in their homes and shot at.”

Kennedy stresses there is an urgent need for government in the territory to upgrade existing laws, mostly to remove obsolete barriers to enforcement.

“They should be revisiting the Territorial Dog Act, which is pretty basic compared to other jurisdictions.”

She notes that legislation is a holdover from the days when Nunavut was part of the Northwest Territories. It has since been upgraded there – but not in Nunavut.

“I’ve never heard so much as a whisper of anyone wanting to update that,” Kennedy complains.

“Our bylaws are dated. They don’t give enforcement officers the teeth that they need to incriminate someone, or press charges – or even to intervene if they see an animal that is being abused.”

Even in Manitoba, where the situation is continually improving, there is still a long way to go.

In isolated spots like Nunavut, the battle against animal abuse has barely begun.