That's a very complex and difficult question.
Certainly I think the ability to dovetail between both provincial legislation and federal legislation is an important tool for us to be able to utilize. There are difficulties throughout all of Canada with respect to standardization of enforcement. That certainly seems to be an issue more than anything else.
The issue of the accountability and the transparency of an animal welfare agency was recently raised. I can say that officers of the B.C. SPCA are sworn peace officers under the Police Act, so we are accountable. We are accountable to the Solicitor General of British Columbia, and we do have a body that oversees the B.C. SPCA.
We're fortunate in the sense that in B.C., we're able to do some of these things, and perhaps in other jurisdictions throughout Canada there may be some difficulty with respect to accessing resources in order to appropriately investigate and prosecute offences. Those situations or issues, I think, are best dealt with by those agencies and their provincial governments that have the ability to enact legislation to assist those agencies in conducting cruelty investigations.
Certainly I think policing agencies throughout Canada should be given greater access to training and learning about the various offences. Certainly I think bestiality is one that most policing agencies will be dealing with, primarily because of the fact that it is within the Criminal Code. As the issue more than anything else becomes one of dogfighting, cockfighting or any animal fighting, it becomes a little more difficult primarily because, as indicated earlier, of the clandestine nature of the offence and the fact that these can be long-standing investigations.
Certainly the one I was involved with in 2008 involved a year-long investigation in which an undercover operative was employed. Those are not the resources that are available to the B.C. SPCA or any of the other animal welfare agencies that I'm aware of in British Columbia, but we were fortunate to have the co-operation of the Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team, which was made up of law enforcement agencies—the RCMP and city police forces—in British Columbia.