SUPPORT BILL S-15! A BIG STEP FORWARD FOR CAPTIVE WILD ANIMALS IN CANADA
Bill S-15 is now in the midst of 2nd reading hearings. They should be completed by the end of May 2024.
Elephants and great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans) are highly sentient animals who have very advanced cognitive, emotional, social and welfare needs. Their lives in the wild are complex and stimulating and can never be meaningfully replicated in captive settings.
Bill S-15, legislation that was introduced late last year into the Senate of Canada, would effectively phase out the captivity of elephants and great apes purely for display, entertainment or profit in Canada! It’s a law that would finally recognize that elephants and great apes (and other animals in future) require far greater recognition and protection than they have been given in the past.
While Bill S-15 is a long overdue and necessary law, Zoocheck and other animal welfare organizations and some zoos are also pushing for the inclusion of big cats (lions, tigers, leopards, snow leopards, jaguars and cheetahs) into the current bill’s framework and a “Noah Clause” that would allow the government to add more species to this legislation in future as scientific understanding evolves, without undergoing the lengthy legislative process again.
Canada currently has a patchwork of laws and regulations that provide only loose protections for wildlife in captivity. In some jurisdictions in Canada, a wide range of wildlife species can be kept for display, business or personal amusement as pets. The worst jurisdiction by far is Ontario where exotic wildlife in captivity is completely unregulated by the province, but there are many significant deficiencies in laws elsewhere across the country as well.
Please lend your voice to support and strengthen Bill S-15. Our colleagues at Humane Canada have set up a pre-written form letter (SEE LINK BELOW) that goes to the Prime Minister, the Senate, and Minister of Environment and Climate Change letting them know that you stand behind this bill as it is, and urging them to push for these crucial amendments to safeguard even more animals.