Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance
TORONTO -- Two animal rights groups are taking the Ontario government to court in an attempt to stop a spring bear hunt pilot program before it begins, alleging it amounts to animal cruelty.
Animal Alliance of Canada and Zoocheck Canada say mother bears will be killed during the hunt, leaving their orphaned cubs to starve or be killed by predators.
This is the only large game species that are hunted when the young are still dependent on their mothers and it is inevitable that cubs will be orphaned.
Congress Of Vienna
The animal rights groups have filed an application for judicial review and a notice of constitutional question, which are set to be heard in court on April 29, just days before the start of the program. They hope the court will at least delay the start of the hunt until it can rule on their legal actions.
In our view, reinstituting this program would be tantamount to the minister and the Ministry of Natural Resources either wilfully permitting bear cubs to suffer or failing to exercise reasonable care or supervision of the bear cub population, he said.
The Criminal Code prohibits causing or allowing animals to suffer. This program of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources will cause black bears to suffer.
Province To Continue Partnership With University Of Guelph On Agri Food Alliance
The pilot project to reinstate the spring bear hunt will start May 1 and run for six weeks in eight wildlife areas known for having the most public safety incidents involving bears.
In northern Ontario it is not responsible for a provincial government to ignore the concerns of thousands of residents who are concerned about their public safety, said Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti.
We have young children who can't go out for recess at their schools, teachers wearing bear whistles because their children are threatened.
Mayors Convene For Bloomberg City Data Alliance
Nearly 50 mayors and city councils across northern Ontario have passed resolutions calling for their participation in the program, Orazietti said. Out of 95 wildlife management units in Ontario, the pilot program will be in eight, he said.
Some people who are completely unaffected by this issue and whose children may be perfectly safe in the schools that they attend have no understanding of the implications and the safety challenges in communities in northern Ontario, Orazietti said.
The hunt was cancelled in 1999 and then-natural resources minister John Snobelen said it had left thousands of cubs orphaned since hunters too often mistakenly shoot mother bears.
Animal Rights Activist Charged In Mink Farm Break In
Really, the only answer we came up with was to end the spring bear hunt, he said at the time. It's the only acceptable way.
Orazietti said the government has learned over the past 15 years that other strategies to reduce human-bear incidents have met fairly limited success.
This has been a very, very thoughtful and strategic approach, he said Thursday. We're not suggesting a return of the spring bear hunt of yesteryear.
Napoleon I: Waterloo, 1815. /n'bonaparte In His Retreat Passing La Belle Alliance.' The Battle Of Waterloo, June 18, 1815. Line Engraving, English, 1817. Poster Print By Granger Collection
The animal rights groups say the ministry's own scientists have found no link between the end of the spring bear hunt and human-bear incidents. Orazietti said that's not completely true.
Our scientists do recognize that there are other scientists and other groups that have indicated that bear hunts do in fact have an impact on population, he said.
Terry Quinney, the provincial manager of fish and wildlife services for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, said the spring bear hunt was for decades a valuable wildlife population management tool.
Vision Soho Alliance — London Community Foundation
In reducing the density and distribution of bears in the spring, particularly those older male bears, it is absolutely reducing the probability of dangerous encounters with people, he said.
Hunters target the male bears, Quinney said, and there are ways they can distinguish male and female bears, especially using suspended bait.
It's not hard to imagine that if a food source is placed, for example, hanging from a tree, a bear in order to reach that food source is going to stand on its hind legs, making its genitalia very visible to a hunter, he said.
Activists Protest Springbrook Fur Farm
Prior to the cancellation of the spring bear hunt in Ontario there were approximately 600 family-based businesses in northern and central Ontario that were involved in the spring bear hunt, for example providing guiding services for hunters, he said.
Revenues to northern and central Ontario on an annual basis were in excess of $40 million a year. All of those economic benefits have disappeared from Ontario.A Kitchener animal rights group protested at a Norwich mink ranch on Saturday, condemning the industry for its alleged mistreatment of animals.
The Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance (KOALA) picketed on the road in front of the Jeff Mitchell Mink Ranch on Norwich Road, as the group prepared to launch its End Fur Farming campaign.
Animal Rights Activists Protest Little Rays Reptile Zoo
The group stood on the side of the road, some held individual signs that said “Stop Animal Cruelty” while a group of four protesters held a long black banner with the words “End Fur Farming” on it in a large white letters.
One of the organizers of KOALA, Malcolm Klimowicz, stood on the other side of the road with a megaphone chanting the campaign’s slogan.
“The mink have about two sheets worth of paper to live on, ” he said. “This causes frustration in these animals. The fur industry will tell you that they are domesticated, but fur farming has only been around for 100 years. They breed the animals not for traits of domestication, but for pelt traits. Stuff that looks nice on a coat.”
Kitchener Stray Cat Rescue Searching For New Space
Klimowicz and his group are fighting to stop fur farming in Ontario. He described how the animals are in a “constant state of distress” when they are in small cages on these farms.
“It’s a direct violation of sections 11.1 and 11.2 of the (Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Act, which states that it’s a violation of the Criminal Code to put an animal in distress, ” the protester said. “These animals are constantly in distress. On top of that, the government, who are supposed to regulate it, there have been no inspections of mink farms by the OSPCA, the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of the Environment in the last five years.
“Yet we see video evidence coming out of undercover footage inside these farms showing these animals are being overcrowded, piles of excrement, ammonia fumes causing eye infections. The government is actually funding research for the mink industry and the fox industry, doing bailouts of millions of dollars from the federal and provincial governments. The big problem is the government is supposed to be regulating this, but they’re funding it. It’s a conflict of interest.”
Napoleon Bonaparte's Military Career, Dictatorship, And Imperial Rule
On top of these issues, Klimowicz said KOALA believes it is unnecessary to kill animals for a “stupid clothing decoration, ” citing a study conducted by the Humane Society of Canada that found that 68 per cent of Canadians support a ban on fur farming.
The Canadian Mink Breeders Association (CMBA) responded to these protests with a release on Saturday, stating the standards of care for raising farmed mink in Canada are set out in a Code of Practice that was prepared by veterinarians, animal scientists, producers and animal-welfare authorities working under the National Farm Animal Care Council.
The release also noted that cage design and sizes, nutrition, veterinary care and other husbandry standards were established to ensure the best possible welfare for farm-raised mink.
Waterloo Four Days That Changed Europe's... By Clayton Tim
In the release, CMBA executive director Gary Hazlewood said mink receive excellent nutrition and care on Canadian farms, adding there is no other way to produce the high quality of fur.
“We understand that some activists now believe that people should not use animals at all, even for food, ” Hazlewood said, “but most Canadians accept the responsible use of animals, so long as they are treated with respect. Our research confirms that close to 80 per cent of Canadians believe that wearing fur should be a matter of personal choice.”
Protesters came from all over Ontario to support KOALA’s cause. One protester, Adam Stirr, came from the Niagara Region to stand outside of the Norwich mink ranch to have his voice heard, telling the Sentinel-Review these practices are “especially egregious.”
Animal Rights Protesters Target Norwich Township Mink Farm
“You’re raising an animal just to kill it for its skin, ” Stirr said. “Its whole life is just the value of its skin and that’s disgusting.”
He added the protest was just the first stage of a larger-scale plan to enact a ban on fur farming in Ontario.
“This is just the very beginning stages of it, ” Stirr said. “This is how it has to start. You’ve got to make people aware of the issue … get people thinking about it. When the next stages kick in, the more people know about it, the more inclined they are to look into it. I guarantee the more people look into this kind of thing, the more people will be disgusted by it.”
Animal Services And Control
“We have an open dialogue with everybody, (but) they haven’t reached out to me personally or to the International Fur Federation or the Canada Mink Breeders that I’m aware of, ” she said. “There’s always an open dialogue. When the Canada Mink Code was put together, veterinary experts put it out for consultation
Posting Komentar untuk "Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance"