Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present two petitions. The first petition is from residents throughout my riding as well as Vancouver.
The petitioners call upon Parliament to revise the Criminal Code to recognize that crimes against animals should be treated as more than crimes against property and to strengthen the language to close loopholes that allow abusers to escape penalty.
I will not get into the reasons, but it is important to look at animal cruelty issues in the same light as the fact that those who would abuse animals are also known by the police to later abuse people.