Abstract
This paper offers the first overview of the Canadian animal cruelty investigations landscape. First, the public and private sector organizations responsible for enforcement are explained, followed by examination of the implications of this patchwork for reporting suspected cruelty. Key statistical data are presented about the types of issues and cases and investigator responses. Initial recommendations are then proposed, and the value of the animal harm spectrum is discussed, including how it can be mobilized to strengthen the operations of animal protection work and animal welfare policy across nations.
Highlights
Given the breadth of other animal species and individual animals, animal protection is a large umbrella under which there are a broad range of political, legal, economic, and investigative strategies
Animal protection work can focus on confronting illegal cruelty and/or on practices that harm animals, but which are currently legal and often undertaken by corporate actors
Across industrialized countries of the anglo-global north, responsibility for the frontline investigations and enforcement of animal cruelty legislation is commonly assigned to nonprofit animal welfare charities— national Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCAs)
Summary
Given the breadth of other animal species and individual animals, animal protection is a large umbrella under which there are a broad range of political, legal, economic, and investigative strategies. Animal protection work can focus on confronting illegal cruelty and/or on practices that harm animals, but which are currently legal and often undertaken by corporate actors. Across industrialized countries of the anglo-global north, responsibility for the frontline investigations and enforcement of animal cruelty legislation is commonly assigned to nonprofit animal welfare charities— national Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCAs). This is the case in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand (Coulter and Fitzgerald 2019; Rodriguez Ferrere et al 2019; Hughes and Lawson 2011; Morton et al 2021). The multi-national pattern of assigning or off-loading work to charities is atypical for law enforcement which is normally seen as a core governmental responsibility by parties and people of all political positions, and both publicly funded and delivered (Coulter 2019; Coulter and Fitzgerald 2016, 2019)
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