I am against the Ministry of…

I am against the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s new proposal to permit new licenses and also against the proposal that old licenses for train and trial areas in Ontario can be transferred.

Permits for penned hunting and penned hunting facilities have not been allowed for over 20 years and I am at a loss to understand why they would start to be accepted again. Penned hunting/training is cruel as the animals used to train hunting dogs in penned hunting suffer terribly and this practice should be ended, not expanded with even more facilities being permitted.

Using wild animals is also dangerous as the traps used to obtain these animals can injure other animals and pets and even children.

Pets are also at risk because training dogs to hunt animals makes them vicious to other small animals--like cats or small breed dogs like Yorkshire terriers. This propensity for violence greatly increase the risk to these dogs used for hunting to be euthanized.

The use of wild animals is harmful as taking any animals out of their natural environment is destructive to ecosystems as it creates an imbalance--fewer foxes means more rats, less rabbits due to trapping for penned hunts means less food for coyotes and more of them entering urban due to hunger. Not to mention all the invasive plants rabbits help keep under control.

There is nothing good about penned hunting facilities so to allow more of them instead of shutting down the ones currently operating begs the question who is this for? Not people or their pets, not the environment, not the wildlife, not even the hunting dogs. Just the small percentage of the public who hunt and an even smaller percentage of hunters that use dogs in this way.

No, Ontario must not allow any more of these facilities and should be working to shut down the ones we have.

Thank you.