Kendra Coulter, Chair of Labour Studies in Brock’s Faculty of Social Sciences, co-wrote a piece with Amy Fitzgerald, a criminologist at the University of Windsor, which was recently published in the Globe and Mail about Ontario’s bold new approach to animal protection.

Coulter and Fitzgerald write:

“Ontario has stepped boldly into 2020 with a new and thoroughly public approach to animal protection, the first of its kind in Canada. If properly funded and thoughtfully implemented, the new system has potential to not only offer compelling lessons for other Canadian jurisdictions, but also to set a high standard for animal protection globally.

Across the country, the enforcement of animal welfare laws is normally off-loaded to humane societies and Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCAs), well-intentioned charities with vastly different levels of resources, and all reliant on donations. Some provinces, such as Alberta, have moved to a mix of public and non-profit investigations.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, animal cruelty investigations now fall to general police forces. Manitoba has a publicly funded animal protection system but investigations are conducted by a mix of government workers, humane society staff and independent contractors.”

Continue reading the full article here.