Email from Sunny Reuter to Senator Percy Downe of Prince Edward Island, Dec. 2006

December 2006 you argued current federal animal cruelty laws are weak and ineffective quoting statistics from the year 2000 complaining about the low number of charges that had been laid across Canada.

Too bad you were not given more recent statistics.... between 2000 (97) and 2004 (695) the number of federal animal cruelty charges laid in Ontario alone increased 7 fold, this despite a decrease in the number of complaints. In a single 2006 case the OSPCA apparently laid 183 charges.

I respectfully submit there is no weakness in the enforcement provision of the current animal cruelty legislation.

I respectfully submit that a lack of training in proper investigative skills and overzealousness by Inspectors and Agents is the problem. Granting unsupervised police powers to a chronically underfunded private charity is a violation of [Ontario Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services] Monte Kwinter's mandate to ensure “that Ontario's communities are supported and protected by law enforcement and public safety systems that are safe, secure, effective, efficient and accountable.”