Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present two petitions. The first one relates to many hundreds of citizens in my riding who want the government to strengthen the Criminal Code provisions to prevent animal cruelty.
There was a very severe incident back in my riding a month ago where a dog was shot twice in the head by its owner and survived. There has been a big rallying cry in my community about the prevention of animal cruelty.
The petitioners are calling on the Minister of Justice to use legislation to increase penalties for animal cruelty under the new section of the Criminal Code.