The Ontario Government…

The Ontario Government should NOT proceed with the proposed amendments to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act to allow new licenses for facilities that use captive foxes, coyotes and rabbits as bait to train hunting dogs, or to transfer existing licenses. Penned dog hunting facilities/dog train and trial areas are a cruel and barbaric practice, and Ontario is the only province in Canada that allows such facilities. Even most of the states in the US do not allow penned dog hunting facilities/dog train and trial areas.

There are already 24 facilities that have such licenses since the time the law was changed in 1997 under the Mike Harris Conservative Government. The Doug Ford Conservative Government should be following the good example set by Mike Harris when his government stopped the issuing of new licenses, and should be looking to reduce the number of these facilities, rather than allowing new facilities to be created, or existing licenses to be transferred.

There is absolutely no justification for expanding the number of these facilities by issuing new licenses; the objective should be to reduce the number of these facilities.