TORONTO - After being criticized for having the most lax animal protection laws in the country, the Ontario government is introducing legislation Thursday that will overhaul the 90-year-old animal protection act and bring the province from "worst to first," Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci said Wednesday.
Animal rights advocates said they're eagerly awaiting the new legislation which will impose new rules on the province's 50 roadside zoos - giving the Ontario SPCA the right to inspect them and hold owners to a higher standard - and make animal cruelty a provincial offence with tougher penalties.
"It's going to be good news for all people who love animals," Bartolucci said. "I would hope that those people who have stewardship of animal care will say we've gone from worst to first with this legislation."
Ontario's regulation of roadside zoos and protection of animals - when compared to other provinces - has been routinely criticized by activists.
Newfoundland and Labrador spells out how specific species should be housed and treated, and Alberta recently brought in tougher zoo regulations. In other provinces, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals can go into zoos and inspect the animals to ensure they're being treated humanely.
Under the current legislation, Ontario's small zoos aren't held to any standards and animal cruelty is only a provincial offence if the cat or dog is involved in a commercial breeding operation.
"Ontario is the worst, it's the absolute worst, both for animal cruelty and for zoo regulation," said Melissa Tkachyk, campaigns officer with the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
"It's about time we make (animal cruelty) a provincial offence. It just shows that we take this issue seriously in Ontario and that we won't tolerate it."
Animals housed in small Ontario zoos often live in filthy conditions, without clean drinking water or adequate stimulation, Tkachyk said.
Animals that are social and used to living in groups are kept in isolation while other more dangerous animals - like tigers and lions - are kept in flimsy cages that allow children to stick their hands right in, she said.
Backbench Liberal David Zimmer, who introduced a private member's bill to regulate roadside zoos that died on the order paper before the last election, said the proposed legislation goes one step further by overhauling the 90-year-old law to widen the scope of animal cruelty.
The legislation will prevent animals from suffering inhumanly in roadside zoos by setting tough standards for such zoos and forcing them to undergo regular inspections, Zimmer said.
"These animals are just in small wire cages with no stimulation, no proper food and often just out there in the hot sun," he said. "That's just cruel."
Conservative Bob Runciman, who has spearheaded bills to increase the penalties for people who abuse cats and dogs, said he's eager to see the fine print of the legislation. The Liberals could create problems if they make the law too broad and subjective, allowing it to be applied to rural residents and their farm animals, he said.
But Runciman said it's high time people who abuse animals, like cats and dogs, suffer the consequences.
"When you see the way they're mistreated by some people, it's truly upsetting to most Ontarians whether they have a pet or not," he said. "This is long overdue."
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said he's been disappointed too often by superficial Liberal legislation. Beefing up standards for roadside zoos and increasing penalties for animal cruelty will be meaningless unless the province gives the SPCA adequate funding to enforce the new law, he said.
"Right now, they don't have the budget to do the work that they're supposed to be doing," Hampton said. "If we're going to take this issue seriously, the Ontario SPCA has to have a consistent level of funding that will allow them to do the work - something that isn't there now."
