I’m dismayed that the…

I’m dismayed that the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry proposes to permit new licenses and license transfers for train and trial areas. Confining wild animals in penned dog hunting facilities and subjecting them to what must be incredibly stressful situations to teach dogs to hunt sounds bad. It’s completely unnecessary to take rabbits, coyotes, foxes and other wild animals from their natural habitats, keep them prisoner and use them as props--and presumably physically endanger them--at the request of hunters.
Non-human animals feel pain and fear, as do humans.
Allowing applications for train and trial spaces is a significant step backward after these applications have been prohibited for 25 years. Why is Ontario hosting these kinds of facilities? The province's 24 facilities are archaic and I urge you to have them shut them down.
I would also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the treatment of other non-human animals in Ontario. Farm animals live in crowded, grim factory farms and are killed by the millions here annually. The WWF reports that 69% of wildlife worldwide has been lost, mostly related to the loss of habitat (forests and marshes in Ontario) caused by animal grazing and for growing crops for animal feed. Please see
https://wwf.ca/stories/living-planet-report-2022-wildlife-populations-p…
Please consider cutting subsidies to industrial animal agriculture and protecting and restoring natural spaces to reverse biodiversity loss and protect animals in Ontario.