I am submitting this comment…

I am submitting this comment in response to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s proposal to allow for the issuance of licenses for new dog train and trial areas.

I was shocked to learn this type of facility exists. I suspect my response is one that would be shared by many Ontarians.

I only became aware of their existence through an online petition started by a veterinarian. My first comment, then, is that it is unfair to be soliciting input on expanding the number of these facilities without first ensuring that the wider public is made aware of their existence. In failing to do so, the Ministry would seem to be guaranteeing that it receives more feedback from those “in the know,” i.e., the users of these facilities. Most of them, I imagine, support the expansion.

I find it abhorrent that there are legally sanctioned areas where animals, including those sourced through trapping, are hunted in an enclosed area. The argument that they are from “sustainable populations” and “there are no concerns with limited take of small numbers” does not justify the practice in any way. Animals caught in traps should be killed as soon as they are found. (Until I reviewed the details of the proposal, I was naïve enough to believe that traps are designed to be lethal. Obviously, that is not the case, and was another shock.)

How is it ethically defensible not to kill these animals immediately, when we know they experience pain (and, focusing on coyotes for the moment, are characterized as intelligent by the Canadian government [https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2018/eccc/CW69-4-57-1…])? Their suffering, and the cruelty inflicted upon them, is then compounded by releasing those same animals into an enclosed area, where they have no chance of escape, and hunting them with dogs.

Most people, I hope, want our world to become a more compassionate, caring place. This must include striving to improve animal welfare. The expansion of this type of facility is a giant step backwards for the Ontario government and for the people (and animals) of Ontario.

If training hunting dogs is deemed necessary for the good of our society, rather than for the benefit of those hunters who cannot rely on their own abilities and must involve dogs, then surely it is possible to develop an inanimate training “tool” that does not experience pain and fear.

I urge you to abandon the proposal to expand the number of these facilities, and to focus instead on revoking the licenses of those that do exist.

Thank you.