Agriculture committee  The mission of Animal Justice.... I want to be really clear about what I'm here to say to you today. We exist to lead the legal fight for animals. We work to improve the legal protections for animals. As I've mentioned—and I appreciate what you're saying about food safety—unfortunately we actually do have some of the worst animal protection legislation in the western world.

Agriculture committee  Look, we're here today to talk about—

Agriculture committee  —improving the laws protecting animals. It's undeniable that Canada doesn't have any of those laws on the books right now. When you look at—

Agriculture committee  What do you mean, exactly, by “legal standing”?

Agriculture committee  “Legal standing” is a term of art referring to whether someone has the right to go to court to seek a legal remedy if their rights are being violated. Animals don't currently have any rights. What we would say, as I've repeatedly mentioned to this committee, is that animals currently don't benefit from on-farm legal protections.

Agriculture committee  That's not what I'm saying at all—

Agriculture committee  Animal Justice doesn't advocate on-farm trespassing. What we're here today to say is that we have very poor laws protecting animals, and that fact is what's contributing to this very low public trust in agriculture.

Agriculture committee  Well—

Agriculture committee  What concerns me is that there is low public trust in agriculture. You can look at studies from places like the Centre for Food Integrity, which is an industry organization, that show that people are increasingly concerned about animal welfare on farms—

Agriculture committee  Yes, it does. I'm concerned about the welfare of animals and I'm concerned about the welfare of farmers—

Agriculture committee  Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to appear. I am a lawyer and the executive director of Animal Justice, Canada's leading national animal law advocacy organization. Together with our tens of thousands of supporters, we work to improve laws protecting animals. This is a big task because, frankly, Canada has fallen quite far behind.

Justice committee  That's right.

Justice committee  That's exactly right, Chair.

Justice committee  To my knowledge, the only other provision that would be of assistance is that a period of probation could include a term that prevents a person from having contact with an animal during that period. I used to be a criminal lawyer, but it has been a few years. I believe that the maximum probation period is three years.

Justice committee  Right now, in a situation where there would be a bust of an animal-fighting ring—be it dogs or birds—what would typically happen is that police and/or the SPCA or humane society, usually working in partnership with each other for a larger bust in particular, would go into that situation.