Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 09/00) - Proposed changes to animal cruelty laws have ruffled some feathers in the fur industry.

Alan Herscovici, Executive Vice President of the Fur Council of Canada said the change is being pushed by animal rights groups who plan to flood the courts with test cases.

"These groups seek to attack widely accepted agriculture and industry practices that they denounce as 'institutional cruelty,'" Herscovici said.

One proposed change contained in Bill C-17 "will make it a crime to kill an animal 'either viciously or brutally' even if the animal is killed quickly," he said.

"This is a new concept, (and) this is troubling because 'viciously' or 'brutally' are not defined."

"Someone could decide that it's vicious or brutal to kill an animal with a Conibear trap," he said.

"Animal activist groups will vigorously argue that any killing of animal is vicious and brutal, so you are exposing the courts to a wave of challenges."

Another concern among industry people is an new definition of "animal" to include all animals "with the capacity to experience pain."

"That could conceivably even make fishing a crime, if not because of the harm to the fish, but because of the possible suffering endured by the worm on the hook," he said.

Joy Ripley, president of the Canadian Humane Society, said the proposed legislation will not change the way industry currently practices.

"There is no intention in the new legislation to put people out of business," she said. "It's simply to ensure that animals do not suffer unnecessarily."

Ripley said the wording of the law permits accepted industry practice.

"Hunting, fishing and trapping in all jurisdictions, are licensed. The license in itself, makes it a legally accepted practice," she said.

There is concern over the definition of inhumane and cruelty, Ripley said, but that is being addressed by those who are drafting the amendments.