BEHINDTHELINES
Guardian Angels wear red berets and, without any authority, patrol places like the streets and subways of New York City. Their stated objectives are noble-- protecting innocent citizens from crime -- but this volunteer group has faced a chilly reception whenever it has tried to expand to Canada. Opponents claim that it feeds on high-profile crimes to raise funds.

We don’t ask the Sierra Club and Greenpeace to police our fish and game regulations or our forest industry. Members of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, a very sincere, dedicated group, work hard to prevent needless traffic fatalities but don’t enforce our Highway Traffic Act.

Private police, are fine for private property like shopping malls. Elsewhere, where broader powers are required, we prefer public law enforcement because the process is fairer and more transparent. Officers have to be psychologically fit, objective and adequately trained.

Ontario law gives the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA), an organization that (like the Guardian Angels) has noble objectives, the power to select agents that can come freely onto your farm. This private group has the powers of a real police force. Yet a recent ruling in the Ontario Court of Justice found that the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA relied on “publicity and high profile cases,” for funding. Sound familiar?

No doubt most OSPCA agents are sincere and competent. It should be noted, too, that when they are accused of wrongdoing, they can’t always defend themselves because of legal constraints or privacy requirements.

In the past, however, the OSPCA has often had difficulty reining in members who want to ban animal agriculture. Lest you thought this problem had gone away, check the education page on the OSPCA Web site for references to a teaching manual for schoolchildren called Sowing Seeds Workbook. It opposes animal agriculture with statements like: “When you think about it drinking the mammary secretions of another species, especially beyond infancy is not natural. The dairy industry has spent a good deal of money trying to convince us otherwise.”

Some farm leaders say the system is working. Yet, in recent months, a judge, two police officers and some respected farmers have levelled a litany of allegations against the OSPCA. Ontario Farm Animal Council executive director Crystal Mackay states categorically that “the system is broken.

In Vancouver earlier this year, 700 mourners and 60 police vehicles with flashing lights turned out for an unprecedented funeral for a police dog. Last month, Toronto staged a similar event when a police horse was killed.

That suggests a shift in the way Canadians view animals. But our series on animal welfare, beginning on page 14, shows some aspects of the uneasy relationship between the OSPCA and agriculture remain unchanged from1989. That’s when OFA president Brigid Pyke, acting on complaints about OSPCA agents, formally asked then Agriculture minister David Ramsay to have his ministry, together with the provincial police, take over jurisdiction for farm animal welfare. BF

Robert Irwin & Don Stoneman