An Ontario Liberal MP claims the Prime Minister's Office has told Fredericton MP Keith Ashfield to back down on the animal cruelty issue.

Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland said he has been trying to set up a meeting with Ashfield for weeks to discuss the matter, but his requests have gone unanswered.

Holland, the author of a private member's bill that would remove animal cruelty provisions out of the property crimes section of the Criminal Code, wants to talk to Ashfield about how cruelty laws can be changed.

"It says to me that he has received direction from the Prime Minister's Office; he has received his marching orders to back down," Holland said.

Ashfield, the minister of state for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, couldn't be reached this week for comment.

In February, Ashfield said he was committed to seeing Canada's animal cruelty laws modernized. He also said he intended to meet with Holland to discuss his private member's bill, which has yet to make the floor of the House of Commons.

"I think the whip has been cracked and, as a lot of them are on that side of the fence, (they) are pretty afraid of the prime minister," Holland said.

A lack of progress in making changes to animal cruelty laws translates into bad news for animals, he said.

"I don't think this is an issue we should be playing politics with. I don't think anybody needs to snap a whip. I think, at the end of day, this should be a motherhood and apple pie issue. Animals are being tortured and our laws are tame, and right now we are behind countries like the Philippines," Holland said.

He said he would like to get the Conservative government to put forward its own bill based on his private member's bill, since government initiatives in such areas generally advance more quickly.

The call for further changes to the law has been a hot issue since an elderly Minto man was acquitted earlier this year of killing five small dogs, even though he admitted to hitting them on the head with a hammer. The action was taken so SPCA officials wouldn't remove them from his home.

Animals in Canada are considered the property of the owner and that person may dispose of them accordingly, providing it doesn't cause unnecessary pain, suffering or injury.

Gwen Young of Oromocto is the founder of the BARK campaign, an organization created to put pressure on politicians to modernize the animal cruelty law. She said her group has stopped pressuring provincial officials and has taken its case to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

"The only thing that's going to get us to stop and ease up a little bit is change," Young said. "It will be a big issue come the next election, trust me."

In email correspondence with the group last month, Nicholson reiterated the government's commitment to Bill S-203, passed in Parliament last year.

"The bill raised maximum penalties for the more serious existing offences of animal cruelty to five years in prison from six months, and granted judges the discretion to order, as part of a sentence, that a convicted offender be prohibited from owning or residing with an animal for any length of time considered appropriate, up from the previous maximum of two years," the minister wrote.

The bill, however, has been criticized by animal welfare groups for increasing penalties without addressing conviction rates.

Submitted by Nicole Joncas of Teja's Animal Rescue: http://www.tejasanimalrefuge.ca