Analysis: Changes desperately needed to quell a problem that has reached unprecedented proportions
The PC government is putting an end to puppy mills in Ontario. It’s a good news story—on the surface. By weeding out the “bad actors” aggressively breeding dogs in decrepit conditions, rife with filth and disease, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner says the new Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act—appropriately known as the PUPS Act—will keep animals safe and prevent Ontarians from unknowingly buying sick puppies.
“The legislation is a mess, but also the enforcement and the transparency is a mess and it all comes together and it all leaves the taxpayers of this province completely in the dark,” Donna Power, one of the founders of the Humane Initiative, an organization dedicated to identifying and exposing puppy mills in Ontario, states.“It’s really reaching a crisis point in Ontario.
Advocates state both pieces of legislation lack sufficient detail to be able to apply necessary fines. “It is so broad and subjective,” she says, adding that “appropriate and adequate” is something that can not be measured. “Each person could have a different measuring stick for what they deem as appropriate.”
“So not only is it impossible for authorities to know where anybody in the province is, that is breeding dogs, there’s also just very poor standards that make it very difficult to enforce,” Labchuk states. “Given the nature of puppy mills, they are primarily run underground, and they are indeed very, very secretive. They don’t advertise that they are the bad actors, so putting an estimate on the number of unethical puppy mills is very, very difficult,” Tomasso admitted. He then referenced a Toronto Star article that estimated there are about 2,000 puppy mills in Canada, most of which are in Ontario and Quebec.
Since January of 2020, the PC government’s AWS department has issued 12,280 orders related to animal welfare concerns. Between 2015 and 2018, the OSPCA issued 16,148 orders. Over that same time period, the OSPCA laid 1,946 charges. Since 2020, the PC government has laid “over 1,100 charges”, Ross states.It means despite having a significantly higher budget, the enforcement regime under the Ontario government is being less effective.
Currently there is no requirement for anyone looking to breed dogs to register with anyone at all. While there are a patchwork of municipal licensing regimes that require registration and inspection of the space being used for the operation, as in the Wellesley example, this is not effective at keeping animals safe from harm
Quebec has a licensing system for breeders, and while it’s not perfect, it allowed the government to get an idea of the true state of puppy milling in the province. Advocates state it could be a jumping off point for Ontario. According to estimates from Power, who has been working in this field for over 30 years, conservative estimates suggest puppy millers with 20 breeding dogs ; breeding each dog twice a year ; with a litter of six puppies each can generate $192,000 if each of those dogs is sold for $800 .
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