It appears that Canada is once again a safe haven for animal abuse and this time, for Canadian research facilities. This story aired tonight on CBC's Disclosure, and I have provided the link at the bottom,for people to read it in full. Here is some of the key info that I made notes about that really shocked me.

Our research facilites are governed by their own watchdog agency called the CCAC, which only inspects a facility every 3-5 years, and they give ample warning before they show up. This agency is made up of people from within their own research industry, so they have reason for bias, in my opinion. All members of the CCAC are protected by a gag order, and none of the inspection details are ever allowed to be made public. In fact, the CCAC which is supposed to ensure the animals are treated humanely, is actually fighting against the new animal cruelty laws that are being debated in Parliament! Reminds me of when the SPCA told the BC Govt that the PCA Act did not need changing.

The major source of dogs for these research facilites is the local pound. It only costs them $6 per dog, as opposed to $500US for what is called a "Purpose Bred Beagle" (only bred for research). Huge savings to them! The University of Alberta has risen above (if you can call it that) the other research facilities and has a strict policy to not buy pound animals. The Professor interviewed said that since 1986, the U of A used about 800 pound dogs a year for conducting research, and since the policy change in the last two years they have used 53 dogs per year. He also stated that their research has been more than adequate with so few dogs. Obviously the pound dogs were so cheap and plentiful that they just used up whatever they got. The U of A Professor also says that the CCAC needs to stop hiding the truth about cruelty to animals in Canadian research, and must become accountable and transparent to the public. Where have we heard that before?

Some communities in Canada have passed laws that their pound animals can not go to research, but not many have done this yet. I believe that every SPCA, Municipal and private pound in Canada must have a policy that outlaws this horrible practice. In fact, it should be federal law. It blew me away when the head of the CCAC who was interviewed for the story was asked by the reporter if he'd want his own personal dog used for research. His answer: "Well, no, but then I think it is my responsibility as a dog owner to make sure my dog never runs loose and ends up in a pound". So in other words, if your dog gets out one time in it's whole life due to unforseen circumstances, and it ends up at a pound and then dead at a research lab, that's just too bad! Nice guy who heads up this watchdog group!

Also, read the link within the news story about Lori Bishop, who's beloved 13yr old Golden Retriever got picked up by the local dog catcher and ended up dead at one of these labs because he was too old for experiments. He had a collar and an ID tag and was well cared for, but the pound sold him to the lab anyway, and she got there too late.

I think we all need to start writing letters to Premier Campbell and the Minister of Agriculture, to create a Provincial law against selling pound animals for research. And who knows, maybe the BCSPCA will actually support this effort. After all, didn't they state last year that they would not allow any SPCA animals to go for research? I'm sure that I read that somewhere after Nadine Gourkow was hired.

http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/030304_animals/main.html