Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been several animal neglect and abuse instances in the NWT over the past year that have garnered much public attention and criticism. We need to be doing more to prevent incidents like this from occurring by developing a public awareness and education program and stronger animal rights legislation.

I want to be clear that I’m talking about pets, agricultural, and working animals here. I think the Wildlife Act has good protections written into it for wildlife and we don’t want to affect hunting and trapping in the NWT, which I strongly support.

Several months ago the Animal Legal Defence Fund published a report which ranked provinces

and territories on the relative strength and comprehensiveness of their animal protection laws. The NWT ranked in the bottom tier. This poor ranking is due mainly to the fact that the NWT doesn’t have a specific animal rights act. What we do have is the Dog Act, which is a start, but, as its name suggests, it only applies to dogs.

The report makes some suggestions as to how the NWT could improve their legislation, including a broader range of protections that apply to all animals, not just dogs; better definitions of standards of basic care; harsher penalties for repeat offenders; and provisions that allow a judge to prevent offenders from owning animals in the future, to list a few of the suggestions. To my mind this needs to be complemented by a program that profiles the responsibilities of a pet or working animal owner in the NWT.

There is much room for improvement here and a model that could be used is Manitoba, whose legislation ranked first in the Animal Legal Defence Fund report. Manitoba, like the NWT, highly values hunting and trapping; yet they have managed to draft progressive animal rights legislation of the highest standard.

The NWT is a place where animals play a fundamental role in people’s lives. Incidence of pet ownership is high in the North, and dog mushing and other such activities are good for tourism and part of our cherished traditional heritage. The vast majority of people recognize the important relationship these animals play in our lives and treat them with the respect they deserve. However, from time to time an appalling violation of the terms of human decency will occur; typically one that could be prevented with the development of appropriate legislation and implementation of enforcement provisions.

With good education and the implementation of an animal rights act, we can ensure the proper and responsible treatment of our pets and working animals.