CFHS E-News Bulletin
June 11 2008

Another Animal Cruelty Bill Introduced

On June 4th, Penny Priddy, a Vancouver-area NDP Member of Parliament, introduced a bill to amend the animal cruelty sections of the Criminal Code. It is called C-558 and it is very similar to Mark Holland’s Bill C-373. In order for it to be permissible in Parliament, it had to be different enough from an existing bill. The reason for introducing it is that Ms. Priddy’s private member’s bill number is higher up on the list than Mark Holland’s. This means that Bill C-558 should come up for Second Reading debate early in the fall. (There’s a slim possibility of it beginning Second Reading before the summer break.) The following lists how C-558 differs from C-373:

It has no offence for brutal and vicious killing
It merges the wording in the animal fighting clause with the specific wording for cockpits, so that it includes training animals to fight, receiving money for fighting and keeping or managing premises for fighting or training animals
It changes the poisoning clause from 'without lawful excuse' to 'without reasonable excuse'
It doesn't include the offence of negligently causing unnecessary pain and suffering, but maintains the offence of negligently failing to provide suitable care
It removes 'negligently' from the clause 'injuring an animal while being conveyed'
It removes the restitution clause only from the offence regarding harming law enforcement animals
Please click here to read bill C-558 on the Parliamentary website.

The CFHS is supporting this bill and hopes to meet with industry groups to discuss it with them.

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3547634&Language=e&Mode=1&File=24