Legislation
The Society now has stronger legislation in place to protect animals. In January, 2010, The Animal Protection Act was proclaimed. It replaced the Animal Cruelty Prevention Act, which had been in place since 1996.
Society Peace Officers have significant power under the Act. Violators can be fined for a first or second offense not more than $5,000 and in default of payment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both fine and imprisonment. A third offense would net a fine not more than $10,000 and in default of payment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both fine and imprisonment. More importantly, the courts can now prohibit the ownership of animals to the violators of this legislation, and may impose a lifetime ban preventing them from ever owing animals again.
The Society has one Provincial Investigator, aided by numerous Special Constables appointed by the Department of Justice, throughout the province. The majority of these Special Constables are volunteers. SPCA Special Constables may seize and impound (when necessary) animals found in neglect or that are being cruelly treated. Seized animals may be reclaimed if conditions are corrected and all expenses of seizure and examination by a veterinarian are paid. The SPCA also enforces sections of the Criminal Code of Canada which pertain to cruelty to animals.
In many cases, animals are left to exist in conditions far below the acceptable standards because they have no voice of their own. SPCA Special Constables rely heavily in information received from concerned citizens to lead them to animals in need of the Society's help. All calls to the Society are kept in confidence. However, if the abuse is extreme, you may be called as a witness. Court trials are always the last resort, as the NSSPC will attempt to provide humane education first. It is their job to speak for those who are unable to speak for themselves.
Read more about this topic: Nova Scotia Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty
Famous quotes containing the word legislation:
“The laboring man and the trade-unionist, if I understand him, asks only equality before the law. Class legislation and unequal privilege, though expressly in his favor, will in the end work no benefit to him or to society.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Statecraft is soulcraft. Just as all education is moral education because learning conditions conduct, much legislation is moral legislation because it conditions the action and the thought of the nation in broad and important spheres of life.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“No legislation can suppress nature; all life rushes to reproduction; our procreative faculties are matured early, while passion is strong, and judgment and self-restraint weak. We cannot alter this, but we can alter what is conventional. We can refuse to brand an act of nature as a crime, and to impute to vice what is due to ignorance.”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)