This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Toronto chapter.

When you and your family get a dog, do you care about it? Is it more than just some strange animal who happens to share the same living space as you?

It becomes a member of the family, essentially – maybe less to some people, but there’s no doubt you become emotionally attached to them. Unfortunately, our country really sucks when it comes to animal protection laws. Do something stupid and cause the death of an animal and you can usually get away with an apology and a trivial fine, or you won’t get in trouble at all. It can all be waived off as a ‘mistake’. The worst part is when people who are clearly incompetent when it comes to animal care are able to get another pet after poor choices with the first one!

Just recently, a Saskatoon kennel killed 14 dogs due to a malfunctioning heater and other questionable circumstances characterized as general negligence. While they can get privately sued in civil court, it’s doubtful anything will happen to them criminally and it is confirmed that the kennel will continue to operate. The SPCA has also said there are no regulations when it comes to kennels in Saskatchewan so it’s difficult to investigate. Why are there no laws dealing with animal protection in a kennel of all things?

You also get cases where dogs die after being left unattended in sweltering cars. People sometimes save them like in the case of a small dog in Grand Bend, where a man broke the window and a bunch of people gave the dog water, but more often than not, people don’t intervene. In that case, it wasn’t disclosed what happened in terms of charges, but the theoretical punishment is up to $ 60 000 in fines, a bit of jail-time, or a lifetime ban on the ownership of animals – but how rare are these punishments actually given out?

More often than not, we’re lenient, so we’d probably let them go after nicely telling them, “Please don’t nearly kill your dog anymore,” while they answer “Yes, mom” and proceed to abandon common sense yet again to leave yet another poor, fuzzy creature in a hot, enclosed space without thinking of the consequences.

Animal Cruelty the Law and Common Attitudes

Under the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act you are not allowed to “permit or cause distress to an animal,” but that’s pretty vague in and of itself, and ‘negligence’ may not even fall into the ‘causing distress’ category by some manufactured standards.

As well as that, if you’re a ‘bystander’ and you don’t really report animal abuse, you’re essentially permitting it, but no one ever gets in a decent amount of trouble for that.

I think this point can sum it up. People don’t think of the worth of an animal as equal to that of a human, so the inconveniences that come with reporting the abuse are things that they don’t want to deal with. But what kind of empathy does that show? We feel for the dogs and cats and creatures around us, so doesn’t that make us horrible if a little inconvenience is enough to turn us off of reporting it?

Say you had a bit of negligence with a dog going on next door, for example, if a dog is not provided with adequate shelter and water and it’s a heat wave outside. A common tendency in a situation like this is to flat out ignore it. Pretend it doesn’t exist and it isn’t there; out of sight, out of mind, as they say. I’ve asked some people why they wouldn’t report what’s happening in a situation like this and the common attitude is that they don’t want any issues with their neighbours, so they won’t do anything.If they report it they believe it’ll be all too obvious about who did the reporting, even if it’s technically ‘anonymous’.

The other thing is that we convince ourselves that it isn’t that bad just to make ourselves feel better for ignoring it. If this goes through your head repeatedly, it’s obvious there is something wrong going on. A pet is something that is commonly ‘owned’ so it seems inappropriate to intervene when it comes to someone else’s treatment of their pets. But isn’t that pet alive? Kids are technically ‘owned’ by their parents, but the view there differs where a clearly bad parent can lose custody of their child. It happens more often since the situation is taken more seriously law protects children.

Animals are ‘owned’, so people can treat them how they want. It’s really an excuse to avoid any inconvenience that comes with reporting abuse.

In my eyes, I just think good riddance to anyone who treats their pet like that, especially if it’s happening next door.

I’d feel uncomfortable living next to someone who treats their pets like trash.

People seem much more willing to intervene on behalf of a child than a pet, but both are experiencing pain, whether it’s outright cruelty or negligence, so both should receive the decent treatment to say something or report it. It doesn’t matter which is more important. To not intervene is ignoring the fact that we feel an emotional bond and empathy for our own pets. It should only be right to extend our care to other pets otherwise our emotional bond with our own pets seems fake somehow.

Is Calling the SPCA Even a Useful Endeavour?

Well, I’d probably think yes, it’s worth calling if you think there’s a problem but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues trying to get help. There are a lot of issues, especially because situations like ‘negligence’, like what I explained, aren’t seen as severe enough. However, this stuff accumulates over time and constant negligence is animal cruelty and even if mild, is severe if done for a longer time.

If you call with an issue of child abuse, someone will be sent over to scope out the situation at the very least. That same courtesy doesn’t seem to apply to a pet unless it’s extremely severe.

Next door, I’ve had people who had a dog that they let out in the heat for the whole day in the dead of summer, and they kept it out there without a dog house. If you were the dog, wouldn’t you feel like death?

I called the SPCA regardless of whether or not it would’ve caused issues with neighbours I frankly didn’t care about and received no help.

First, because I didn’t have a deck in my yard, I couldn’t exactly ascertain whether they had a water bowl for their dog in the yard since I’m not a giant who can see over fences. But even if I did have a deck, it would have just looked creepy trying to peek into their yard for the purpose of scoping it out. It should have been enough that they didn’t have a dog house which counts as not having adequate shelter for said dog.

Then they wanted more proof without sending someone out to check the situation. What am I supposed to do, waltz into their yard?

Obviously not. It’s pretty much undoable. I just think they don’t want to bother, frankly. It’s happened on two separate occasions with two separate dogs with two separate neighbours and two slightly different situations.

What’s the Point of Calling?

Just to test it out and hope that you’ve gotten a better result than I have. At least you can pat yourself on the back for acknowledging the fact that something’s wrong and trying to remedy it. Furthermore, if you witness animal abuse in public, all you can really do is call someone about it. It might be a serious enough issue for them to care.

But then what do you turn to if your call goes ignored like mine?

Sometimes talking to neighbours who you don’t want to have issues with is the way to go. It may actually just be an issue of people who have no clue what to do with their pet because it’s their first one and they didn’t know any better. It’s actually a common thing that people don’t even know that leaving your dog outside in bad heat without some shade and water, or during horrible weather like a bad rain or snowstorm can cause some problems.

It may seem a bit bold but they’d probably appreciate a casual chat before calling animal control. I’ve done it and it’s not awkward until you make it awkward. Talking about it casually also makes it seem like you care rather than just seeming like you’re antagonizing them.

It might work in other situations too. When it comes to children, I’ve seen people talk to strangers to intervene no matter what, picking up their courage to say their piece. The same courtesy needs to apply to dogs rather than just thinking of them as toys to be ‘owned’.

Spread around a little of your empathy and you’ll feel good too, rather than brushing it under the rug where it’ll still occasionally bother you. Even though that pet can’t say it, it’s probably thankful someone’s standing up for it.