Zoocheck has recently partnered with World Animal Protection Canada to promote a new municipal resolution, supported by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), urging Ontario to finally regulate exotic wildlife in captivity. Both groups were at the 2024 AMO conference in Ottawa this month. It’s long been known that […]
Another court postponement to May 24th as City and Reptilia not yet agreed on terms of “offer to settle” in City-initiated legal action After waiting more than 9 months for the March 18, 2024 trial date in the City of London vs. Reptilia case, the court appearance lasted less than […]
Hearings now complete, Senate Committee study to follow An Opinion Editorial by Barry Kent MacKay On April 11, 2024, the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs held a hearing with stakeholders to consider Bill S-15, an Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Wild Animal and Plant […]
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 […]
Eco-literature: Creative Writing as Advocacy Wednesday May 29, 2024, 7 – 8 pm EST Join author, advocate and veterinarian Nadja Lubiw-Hazard for a reading, discussion, and Q&A. Nadja will read from her recently published short story, “Captive”, based on Yupi, a polar bear held captive in a tropical zoo in […]
Escapes, human injuries and deaths, animal suffering and perpetual problems for municipalities the result of lack of exotic animal regulation in Ontario While some reporting of the escaped kangaroos treat the incidents very lightly, they are actually a sign of a very problematic, broken system in Ontario. Unlike most other […]
Congratulations & Thank You to Whitby Town Council and Staff for Protecting Children and Animals On Monday January 8th, the Town of Whitby’s Committee of the Whole said NO to prohibited wild and exotic animals staying at the Nova’s Ark children’s camp. The facility houses 350 animals representing a wide […]
This month marks the 10th anniversary of Zoocheck’s campaign to secure the release of the Toronto Zoo’s last three surviving elephants (Toka, Thika and Iringa) and their subsequent 4,300 km transport to the PAWS sanctuary in California. Our campaign attracted a great deal of attention in Canada and around the […]
An Opinion Commentary by Barry Kent MacKay (October 2023) Those of us involved in conservation keep reading in news articles that rhino horn is used as an aphrodisiac, presumably a primal form of Viagra. Nope. Not true; it’s used for everything from dagger handles to headaches, but not to help […]
Guest commentary by Kira Pedersen (July 2023) I recently visited a mobile zoo exhibit where, among other animals, I met a sloth for the first time and it wasn’t fun. While it was a miserable experience for me, it was undoubtedly worse for the sloth. The traveling animal show was […]
