Justice committee  The current legislation allows us to charge anybody with being present at a cockfight. Certainly, extending that legislation for all animal fighting would be of significant assistance, particularly in those jurisdictions where they're seeing a prevalence of dogfighting. The diffi

Justice committee  Absolutely.

Justice committee  I understand that, and certainly the B.C. SPCA.... Personally, I am in full support of the amendments as presented. My agency is, as is Humane Canada.

Justice committee  No, there are not at this time. Certainly all aspects of animal cruelty are of concern to me and to my agency, as well as to Humane Canada, but I think the current amendments, as written, will certainly provide an effective tool for us to utilize. Other pieces of legislation th

Justice committee  I think we are somewhat progressive. Certainly other international jurisdictions deal with it differently. The U.S. not only has federal legislation, but they have the ability, through their state legislatures, to enforce legislation. Some is stronger and some is not quite as st

Justice committee  Absolutely. I think the ability for a judge or justice to impose those significant penalties would potentially act as a deterrent, and I would certainly support any increase in those penalties, but again, not at the expense of moving forward with the legislation.

Justice committee  Certainly. With regard to cockfighting in the jurisdiction that I work in, for some of the individuals, the rate of recidivism is high. We've charged a number of individuals and have been successful in convictions for only a small handful of these individuals. They are the same p

Justice committee  My understanding is that we would be supportive of any increase in penalties but not at the cost of not proceeding and moving forward with the legislation.

Justice committee  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

Justice committee  That's difficult to answer. I would certainly say the ability to enact or amend legislation is probably the most important part. Giving the enforcement agents—whether they be animal welfare officers, protection officers, control officers or policing agencies—the tools they need

Justice committee  Our act allows us to seize an animal that we have reason to believe is in distress, and our definition of distress allows us to deal with animals that may have been involved in fighting. Certainly the impact is much less on penalties and on the ability to share that information.

Justice committee  Certainly, because as it's written now, we're only dealing with cockfighting. In my personal experience, it has been cockfighting, so it has been helpful. However, for my colleagues in other jurisdictions that are dealing with dogfighting, the difficulty becomes one of gathering

Justice committee  As I indicated earlier in my statement, we enforce not only the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which is provincial legislation or referred to as a general application act, and then the Criminal Code, which is a federal statute. For us, oftentimes we will

Justice committee  I would agree to some extent. Certainly, the idea of having an awareness campaign would be of significant assistance, but only in the event that we have the ability to enforce the legislation. As the legislation is currently written, it is extremely difficult for us to do anythi

Justice committee  Thank you.