January 10, 2008
From the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS)
When Parliament prorogued last fall, Senator Bryden’s Bill S-213 died on the order paper, while Mark Holland’s Bill C-373 remained in the queue – but still very far down that queue.
In the meantime, Senator Bryden’s bill was re-introduced and re-named Bill S-203. By the end of November, it had passed through all stages in the Senate, and referred directly to the House of Commons Justice Committee. A parliamentary procedure allowed the bill to go straight to the stage it had reached in the House in the previous parliamentary session. So Bill S-203 is now awaiting further study by the House Justice Committee. The CFHS has already requested to appear before the committee when it deliberates the bill.
A recent, gruesome case of animal cruelty in Camrose, AB (where four teens allegedly microwaved a cat) has brought a lot of attention on the two animal cruelty bills and the CFHS’ efforts to update the legislation.
Postcard campaign
The CFHS is continuing its successful postcard campaign to the Prime Minister – which has gained even more momentum since the Camrose case. The initial campaign was so successful, with all of our 35,000 postcards distributed in less than 6 weeks, that we reprinted an updated version, which includes a reference to Bill S-203.
We encourage our member societies and their supporters to order postcards, free of charge, using this link on our website:
http://cfhs.ca/law/order_your_postcards_today/
For updated information on the animal cruelty bills, please visit www.cfhs.ca.
