As new Ontario cruelty-to-animals legislation takes effect, farm groups in the province worry that the exemption for normal farm practices is so vague that farmers could end up on the wrong side of the law.
Meanwhile, animal welfare agencies hope Ontario’s tougher law will be a template for other provinces.
“We really have gone from the weakest in the country to the strongest,” said Darren Grandel, an inspector for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA). “I hope this will inspire other provinces to look at their own legislation and to follow suit.”
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Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) president Betty Jean Crews said the legislation presents two problems for farmers.
The act attempts to exempt agriculture with the phrase: “The standards do not apply to reasonable and generally accepted practices of agricultural animal care, management or husbandry or to classes of animals or activities prescribed by regulation.”
Crews said that exemption is too vague and will be interpreted by people not familiar with agriculture. Also it is not clear what constitutes reasonable practices.
“This is something we are going to have to work on with government to get improvements,” she said.
The other major issue is the power the legislation gives to OSPCA officials, many of whom will not be familiar with farm practices.
“The problems are still there and a big one is that the SPCA is answerable to no one and they can enter a premise without a warrant and without warning,” she said.
Grandel from the OSPCA said the farm lobby need not worry.
“The powers of inspection have been there since 1919,” he said. “Responsible farmers should not fear this act.”
He said many of the 16,000 complaints the OSPCA receives each year relate to farming enterprises. He said approximately 2,000 result in action.
The legislation passed into law in late November is the first significant update to animal cruelty legislation since 1919.
It would give SPCA officials unprecedented authority to enter and inspect premises where they believe animals are being abused, mistreated or are in danger. Veterinarians will be forced by law to report any cases in which they believe an animal they are treating has been abused or mistreated.
Fines are increased to a maximum $60,000 with up to two years in jail after a conviction.
“The changes we are imposing would give Ontario the strongest protection laws in Canada,” said community safety minister Rick Bartolucci.
But farm sector witnesses appearing before a legislative committee in November warned there could be trouble.
OFA executive member Wendy Omvlee said that while farm leaders have confidence in the OSPCA officials they deal with now to discuss implementation of the bill, those people will not always be there.
“People move on, promotions, people retire, so clarity needs to take place because although we’re confident, perhaps the people in leadership roles at present may not always be so,” she told provincial politicians. “That’s one thing that I would like to stress and that’s (the need for) some clarity in regards to the term distress and the use of such acceptable husbandry practices and those types of things.”
John Maaskant, a chicken producer and chair of the Ontario Farm Animal Council, said farmers support strengthened animal welfare laws but are worried that the lack of clarity can be misconstrued to farmer disadvantage in future.
The use of poultry cages and how they are viewed by animal welfare agencies is a major issue for the poultry industry.
Maaskant said the bill gives the SPCA new powers of investigation and enforcement “and yet does nothing to require accountability and public transparency of this privatized enforcement agency.”
Rural Progressive Conservative politician Randy Hillier has complained that SPCA enforcement officers receive only two weeks of training “before they get police powers, and to understand animal husbandry and livestock care takes far greater than two weeks.”
