Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to stand once again on behalf of petitioners from Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., Newfoundland, the prairie provinces, British Columbia and the territories.
The petitioners point out that while the Criminal Code imposes serious sentences on people who abuse animals in a variety of ways, judges, by and large, do not take cruelty to animals too seriously in terms of the record. Therefore, the petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to impose harsher penalties for serious offences against animals and to establish an education program for judges to help them understand society's abhorrence and condemnation of acts of cruelty to animals.