Justice committee  CFHS has never actually sat down and tried to write what would be our ideal bill, so that's a difficult question to answer, but we do fully support Bill C-373. But we have accepted compromise. And we weren't so much opposed to those amendments made by the Senate, but we thought

Justice committee  There's been a great deal of discussion about the fear of animal rights groups, and I want to make it clear that animal rights groups do not have any authority to lay charges, any more than you or I, as a private prosecution. We have stringent screening processes in our system to

Justice committee  We would recommend putting in a definition of “animal” that would treat all animals the same. This would require changing a lot of wording to take out references to “dogs”, “birds”, “cocks”. There's a lot of outdated language in the act. That's why we don't think making amendment

Justice committee  We've said all along that the penalties are not the most important issue. Of course we support higher penalties, and they are very much needed. We've struggled with it, frankly, because I sit here representing humane societies and SPCAs across Canada that are trying to prosecute

Justice committee  Absolutely, there's no question this bill has nowhere near the level of support, and the broad support, that other bill had. An interesting comment was made by Leslie Ballentine last week when she represented 16 animal-use industry groups, including trapping organizations, farmi

Justice committee  I totally agree that this committee is in a difficult spot because you can only consider one of them at a time. The reality is, though, that while you said it's true that we can have another bill and that it happens with gun crimes and other things, it is not easy to get Parliame

Justice committee  That's a tough question. I can't predict what the Senate is going to do--

Justice committee  Yes, I think we would have some concerns about that, but I would hope if we got there again and were able to get back that huge broad support we had, the Senate would finally listen.

Justice committee  Sure. I'd like to add a comment. I would suggest, as indicated by that pile of papers, that the debate over the last eight years has been substantial. In House committees and Senate committees, there has been extensive debate on this issue. I can't see how we can say that no pro

Justice committee  Sure. The idea of making them hybrid offences is so that we can proceed with a more serious offence for particularly heinous crimes. Certainly we think that the majority of crimes would still be convicted as summary conviction offences, but in the case of repeat offences or part

Justice committee  I just wanted to quote also from Joanne Klineberg in that very same testimony at the legal and constitutional affairs committee. She spoke after Mr. Piragoff, and made the point that the actual words do apply that an animal can be a wild or stray animal: Nonetheless, exception

Justice committee  Both of us will present.

Justice committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, honourable members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today on this very important issue. The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies is a national animal welfare charity formed in 1957, and it is the only national voice of humane societie

Justice committee  Okay. I'm sorry. Number three, it is currently an offence to kill an owned animal without a lawful excuse—that would include farming, fishing, hunting, trapping, animal research, or protection of life or property—but it is not an offence to kill an unowned animal without a lawfu