Die-hard animal rights activists and casual pet lovers alike rallied against Bill S-203 at Phillips Square on Sunday as part of a Canada-wide demonstration. Protesters claim that S-203, which aims to amend the country's ancient animal cruelty laws, is really a "diversion" and does not address the real issues.
"S-203 will do nothing and will only make future changes to the present animal cruelty legislation harder," said Laura Jane of Animal Liberties at McGill. "No humane society is behind S-203. Anybody dealing with animal welfare or animal rights agrees that S-203 is useless."
Concordia Animal Rights Association Co-President Lucas Solowey had harsher words for the bill.
"The legislation is detrimental to animals," he said. "It reinforces the status quo."
Jane said that one of the biggest issues is that under S-203, animal cruelty crimes will still be tried as crimes against property.
"Most Canadians don't see animals as property," she said. "They see them as feeling, sensitive beings."
Cyrus Showkati, the Montreal representative for Canadians for Effective Animal Cruelty Legislation, said that animals should remain property for ownership and commercial purposes, but argued that crimes against animals should be considered more seriously.
"Crimes against animals should not be just considered as crimes against property," he said. "Animals should have more weight than say, a toaster, or any other inanimate object."
Both Jane and Showkati stressed that because S-203 only recognizes animals as property, animals that do not have owners, such as strays or wildlife, will not be protected.
"What the legislation is saying now is that when animals aren't property they don't matter," Jane said. "The law is inconsistent."
Activists are instead pushing a similar private member's bill, C-373, which was introduced to the House of Commons by Liberal Member of Parliament Mark Howard. Showkati said that C-373 includes the same clauses as S-203, but closes loopholes that are not covered by the latter, such as criminalizing dog fighting and broadening the definition of animal cruelty to include negligence in addition to wilful neglect, which is harder to prove. Although some may argue that C-373 can still be adopted after S-203 passes, Showkati responded that barring minor revisions in 1956, Canada's animal cruelty laws have not been changed since 1892.
"Animal cruelty amendments don't happen every day," he said. "If something passes, I guarantee that nothing else will pass anytime soon."
Despite the relatively low turnout of about 100 protesters, organizers and participants alike were happy with the outcome and were able to collect 300 signatures to add to the 2,000 collected nation-wide toward the cause.
"This was one of the first Canada-wide demonstrations for animal cruelty legislations," Jane said. "On the whole I was happy."
"We only announced it four to five days in advance and we only used online marketing. If we had two or three weeks, we could have easily had 1,000 people," Showkati said, stressing that this is an issue that all Canadians can relate to.
"This should not be confused with animal rights activism," he said. "It's not about the seal hunt; it's not about fur; it's not about eating meat or vegetarianism. We're talking about going after criminals because our laws are inadequate."
2008 Woodie Awards
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
cyrus showkati
posted 4/02/08 @ 12:55 AM EST
thanks for covering this event in Montreal!
If you were unable to attend this rally, but you'd like to show your support for this cause. Please feel free to join
"100,000 Canadians for Effective Animal Cruelty Legislation"
http://www. (Continued…)
Emily
posted 9/29/08 @ 11:01 AM EST
Cyrus Showkati is a psycho dog stealing idiot!
He should be institutionalized!
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