Province introduces new animal welfare laws with stiffer fines

QUEEN’S PARK — The province introduced its new animal welfare legislation last month, which would create its own body of about 100 law enforcers and will see a huge increase in animal cruelty fines.

The new law, called the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, or the PAWS Act, replaces and repeals the OSPCA Act that the Ontario Landowners Association successful challenged last year. The province has since appealed the initial court ruling, which agreed with the landowners’ assertion that animal rights enforcement agencies needed to be subject to greater oversight and public scrutiny.

Enforcement would be overseen by a chief animal welfare inspector, appointed by the Solicitor General.

At first blush, the bill is a move in the right direction, said Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie. “It should provide the transparency and accountability we thought was lacking (in the OSPCA Act),” he said. Currie added that the OSPCA’s fundraising requirements created a big conflict of interest for the organization. Both of these were arguments raised by the landowners in court. The OFA didn’t back the landowners’ challenge to the OSPCA Act because “Landowners, they’re about ‘back off government,’ period. That’s their mantra, they didn’t want any oversight at all,” said Currie, adding that the OFA supports animal welfare legislation. “Reality is there are rules. We just want to make sure there are the right ones.”

Ottawa-area ag lawyer Kurtis Andrews, who is representing the landowners’ association in court, agreed that some changes were positive, but said that there were still many “devil’s in the details that the agriculture community should be very concerned about.”

That includes:
• The new definition of distress includes “psychological hardship.” Said Andrews: “Who gets to decide what animals are thinking and their emotional state?”

• The reasonable ag care exemption in the new act essentially adds the ability for the government to change ag exceptions in care by regulation, essentially making it easier for the government to forbid certain practices.
What is reasonable care is still decided by people without specialized knowledge, said Andrews.

• There is still no exception for ag to compliance orders. A farmer can be convicted for failing to comply with an order, even if what he’s doing is an accepted farm practice. Animals can also be seized for a farmer failing to comply with the order.

• Animals can still be removed on medical grounds without a veterinarian’s sign-off.

• Compliance orders still aren’t automatically revoked after a certain amount of time, “meaning that an order can still potentially last forever.”

Another major change in the new bill is a big boost in the penalties.

For what the province calls more serious offences, including causing or permitting distress or making animals fight, the penalties for an individual are going up from a maximum $60,000 fine and two years in jail to a maximum $130,000 fine and two years in jail on a first offence, with the fine jumping to $260,000 but the jail term staying the same for a second offence.

For less serious offences, including failing to comply with an order or knowingly making a false report to an inspector, the penalties are jumping from a maximum $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail, to a $75,000 fine and up to six months in jail for a first offence, and a maximum $100,000 fine and one year in jail for any subsequent offences.