An Alberta woman is calling for changes to the way pets are dealt with under provincial family law, after similar changes in B.C. earlier this year.
An advocate in Alberta has launched a petition asking that the Alberta goverment follow B.C.’s lead in considering pets as more than property under family law.
The provincial government in B.C. made changes to the Family Law Act this past January. With these changes, pets are no longer treated as “property” in divorce and separation proceedings, recognizing their safety, well-being, and place as part of the family.
Animals still considered property under Canadian Law
Animals are still considered property under federal law. The Vancouver Humane Society, along with animal protection organizations and experts across the country, is calling on the federal government to recognize animals as sentient beings with a new petition.
Can you support this important initiative and help strengthen legal protections for animal well-being?
“Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, we will help.” – Jane Goodall
In this month’s episode of The Informed Animal Ally, Alistair Schroff of Lakes Animal Friendship Society discusses the importance of education for animal well-being, and other successes, challenges, and opportunities in animal organizations.
Featured Guest: Alistair Schroff
Founder, Lakes Animal Friendship Society
Alistair Schroff helped create Lakes Animal Friendship Society with teacher Valerie Ingram and former RCMP officer Hayley Nielsen in 2008. LAFS focusses on education about animal care, compassion and dog bite safety as well as supports for pets from lower-income families including spay / neuter, pet food and all-weather outdoor shelters. Alistair’s roles include community cat trapper, handy person, chauffeur, proposal writer, dishwasher, bookkeeper, and dabbler in children’s book writing.
Note: This written discussion has been edited for length.
Hi, my name is Alistair Schroff, and I work with a group called the Lakes Animal Friendship Society. Most of our activities are delivered around the town of Burns Lake, which is in the central interior of British Columbia. In talking to you about some of the good, the bad, and the ugly of what we do and what we’ve experienced, I’ll go with two themes, which I hope you’ll find at least somewhat interesting and informative.
First of all, I want to talk about education because that to us is one of the cornerstones that should be in place for any animal welfare group and programs pretty well anywhere that one should care to help animals, their families, and the community.
And on the topic of education, Jane Goodall has a good quote, which goes, only if we understand, shall we care only if we care, shall we help. And only if we help shall all be saved.
And that’s a good little prompt, which basically says we have to know more about what it means to care for animals and even why should we care about animals?
And that’s where education comes in. And that is truly one of our biggest successes as a society.
The Lakes Animal Friendship Society is small with only a few key volunteers. Of course, we get help from others, but it’s a fairly small group. Yet we’ve managed to create education programs that are becoming known as being quite comprehensive and effective in helping children in particular, learn about what it means to be more caring, more compassionate and safe around animals.
And to that end, we’ve created a number of picture books, activity books, things like coloring books and miscellaneous stuff like teaching guides and even how to build dog houses to help animals that might be left out in the cold. So those programs that we’ve delivered are really what we think is our biggest success.
And we are very proud of the thousands of students that we’ve been able to visit directly, often with Valerie Ingram, our volunteer who’s a teacher and who has taken a dog into the classroom and helped kids learn a lot more about what it means to even see that animals have feelings and that their needs are so similar to those of the students and those messages have really helped open the eyes of the students.
And of course, through their communication with their families and them going out into the community, they’ve been little ambassadors of change.
And we are really proud of everything that they’ve done to kind of elevate the care for their own animals and also create a more normalized environment where animals are known to have feelings and are worthy of care. They’re not sort of a misunderstood nuisance or a threat as they were before we started our programs, when they’re coming on to the school yards and stealing children’s lunches because of lack of proper care, overpopulation issues that really come back to a lack of understanding of what animals need and what we can do about it.
Practical resources for people and pets
So in addition to providing these education opportunities, we also were very careful to provide access to the tools to implement that new knowledge. And that was where we’ve had our spay/neuter programs to help animals from lower income families. And we’ve also worked with pet food programs which now we operate in cooperation with the local food bank.
And basically if the children and the families feel that it’s a better thing to have their pet spayed or neutered that they can in turn find access to that service in a manner they can afford and they can actually get it done.
So through those programs, that’s our second big success is the actual results of the education being implemented, the tools being there and actively spaying and neutering over a thousand animals in a fairly short period of time. Offering houses like shelters for animals that could not be brought into the house, even though indoors is best, if they can’t be inside, at least they have proper four season shelter.
And of course, access to the pet food they need. So nobody goes hungry, either the families or the animals themselves.
Making a difference in the community
And what we found is after we implemented our programs for a few years, the results were really, really amazing. And when I say that, I mean impoundments of the local village pound dropped to perhaps 10 percent of what they were before.
And this is a savings of tens of thousands, now adding up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local village for the animal control area. Further to that, and this is really important children not getting bitten by dogs. Often it’s children who suffer dog bites. Often they get bit on the face and it can be very serious.
Many children in Canada have sadly been killed in dog attacks. And we found that after implementing our programs for a few years, that the number of dog bites reported to the local ER dropped to about half of what they were previously. And so that’s many, many more kids that are not being scared, bitten, seriously hurt by dogs, often the family dog, often a friend’s dog.
So it’s a much healthier relationship for all, and we want to keep everybody safe.
And we get encouraging stories, people on the street saying, Oh, they saw some kids that were looking at a dog across the street and they asked their mother, you know, may I please pet the dog or ask their uncle or whichever adult they were with to make sure they had permission, getting permission from the guardian and really implementing the safe behaviour.
So the whole point is to normalize what is helpful and healthful and safe for all. So those are some examples of our successes, but there are some challenges as always. And on the education front it’s been interesting to us.
Challencges in animal organizations
We’ve had some big success, but you know, some slow uptake in our own community, adjacent communities even though our programs have been kind of proven, sometimes education is not given the priority that it should be, and from our experience, not just what we think, but what we know from our programs.
So typically, sheltering gets most of the funding in animal welfare, spay and neuter assistance, those kinds of programs, a lesser amount. Education is by far the most under resourced and under supported, under implemented programs that we see in animal welfare.
And so that continues to be an issue that we see in Canadian and really animal welfare in many places. Education is the last priority and really it needs to be the first.
The other issue we’ve seen is regression as many societies have reported. Very recently we heard Victoria Humane Society and others on Vancouver Island saying what we have found in the interior which is demand for services increased, costs have increased, and we feel a large regression.
And we’re seeing similar types of animal overpopulation, danger, and nuisance to the community. So there is some definite regression there. So that has been a challenge.
COVID has accelerated that, but interestingly, we were seeing the trends before that even. We were a victim of our own success to some extent, because as the overpopulation issue became more under control, then we made a very, very lucrative market for puppy mills and backyard breeders.
So therefore there were hardly any dogs to be found. It’s difficult. There are shelters, but they’re not right in the community. People want easy access to whatever they want. And so in the case of pets, it made a market for backyard breeders and puppy mills.
So that was an unforeseen circumstance. And so therefore we see that you need to have the bylaws, the enforcement tools that don’t seem like a big priority when everything is going well.
And so that is something that we’ve learned and would like to share with others is having good plans in place to keep things on the right track, even while things are going well. So that’s a cautionary note.
Opportunities for the future
On the topic of hope and good things coming for the future, we have had some great success in working with other groups. For example, this activity book was updated and revised in cooperation with the San Diego Humane Society.
We’ve worked with a local translator. And we’ve done similar groups with adjacent community of Prince George and their aboriginal education department producing materials not just, showing diverse communities and northern themes but also even in the local carrier dialect in Burns Lake or the carrier dialect of the Lheidi T’enneh in the Prince George area.
And Veterinarians Without Borders have even translated some of the same materials into Inuktitut for local dialects in the Arctic. So we’ve managed to work with some groups to extend the reach of these education materials and get them out there.
And the adoption of those materials in other parts internationally has far exceeded even in British Columbia or Canada. So we’re very encouraged because ultimately they’re in the hands of children. I want to also talk about other things about partnerships.
So when we talk about encouraging things happening in other aspects of our animal welfare programs, we’re working with a group called the CARE Network out of Tofino. And so we do very similar programs to each other. So we’re working on teaming up and joining forces and making our resources and efforts go further in the areas of animal care, veterinary services, education.
So we both have strengths that we can bring to the table and we need to do more of that as animal welfare groups , find out who is similarly aligned, just go for it. Roll up your sleeves and go to work.
And on the education front, a similar thing, we don’t always have success with the communities that we would like, but if we run into teachers or librarians or homeschoolers or other groups anybody that is sort of aligned with wanting to get resources in the hands of children, we want to support that.
And so if you basically find people who are pushing the same direction as you are, get together, go for it, make it happen. And you might have bigger goals you shouldn’t lose sight of.
A woman by the name of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, very well spoken, has a great saying which is just because you can’t do everything, don’t do nothing. Do something, anything.
And that means, find out what you can do today that is workable. Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture, but just get to work and do what you can.
Some of you may have seen some YouTube videos of a fellow known as the guerrilla gardener. And he says, you know, you want to help bring a shovel and yeah, that’s the kind of people you want to work with.
People who are ready to make things happen. So find them, get teamed up, make things happen in your communities and yeah, just find out who’s willing to work with you and go for it. And that’s really the essence of Lakes Animal Friendship Society.
And we hope that you will take advantage of the free materials that are available on our website, lakesanimalfriendship.ca/resources. There’s materials, songs, links to videos, and that’s all available for free. We also have other materials available for order, but you can also contact us for free samples. And also we have worked with groups to get their logos on materials or adapt them like we did with Marika and Vets Without Borders.
There’s some stuff that didn’t quite fit an arctic environment and it was modified to fit. So we love working with folks and getting consistent quality materials out wherever they are needed. And so see what we can do to work with you. So if you have some ideas for translations, changes, whatever, we’ve got the flexibility to do those things and would like to see them in the hands of children and their families.
So being able to give children something tangible that they can take home and share with their families is really important and allows, if you are doing classroom programs, it gives something that the teachers can use and expand on lessons or expand on messages that have been shared and then ultimately go home to share with the whole family which ripples through the community.
So, it’s all about spreading that ripple of care and compassion. So, thank you very much for listening to my very long discussion. And I hope that everybody listening and watching this is enjoying their efforts to help the animals. And even when there are setbacks or problems, you can always dust yourself off and find a new way to get things done.
You just have to keep soldiering on. So thank you and have a lovely day.
Next episode
Please join us next month to learn about successes, challenges, and opportunities from vegan business owners!
Senior Man Sitting On Sofa At Home With Pet Labrador Dog
Read or watch the story on Global News: As animal shelters across the country are in crisis with an overflow of animals, animal organizations are pushing to end pet restrictions in rental housing.
“A recent parliamentary petition started by Humane Canada is asking the House of Commons to include a specific provision for tenants with pets in the new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights that was proposed in the 2024 federal budget.”
Read more about how pet-friendly rental housing helps animals and the humans who love them, and sign the petition from the Parliament of Canada website!
This petition is now closed. Thank you to all who spoke up for pet-friendly housing!
Canadians love, value and rely on the emotional support of their pets; yet most provinces in Canada still allow pet restrictions in rental housing that split people up from their beloved companion animals.
One of the top three reasons people surrender their pets to animal shelters is loss of suitable housing, which is increasing across the country due to national economic challenges.
Meanwhile, animal shelters across the country are in crisis and are at their capacity.
A new federal e-petition calls for legal changes to ensure tenants with pets are no longer excluded from rental housing.
Can you sign the petition help animals stay with their families?
Join MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Humane Canada, the Vancouver Humane Society, and animal organizations across the country in asking the federal government to include Canadian tenants with pets in a legally binding, nationwide Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights with a specific provision for companion animals, voiding any “no pet” clauses in tenancy agreements so that tenants with pets are no longer excluded from rental housing.
This federal e-petition on the Parliament of Canada website closed on November 2nd at 7 am.
Important: After you sign the petition, be sure to check your email and click the confirmation link to ensure your signature is counted.
This past weekend, I was in the Downtown Eastside sharing emergency veterinary resources and handing out pet supplies as part of the Vancouver Humane Society’s Because They Matter event. The tables were laden with bright new leashes, harnesses, and toys, tempting treats, and sturdy carriers and litter boxes.
I spoke with a man who carefully fitted new shoes onto his dog’s feet, telling me how she would now be safer walking around on the sidewalks. As one person switched her dog’s collar for a well-fitting harness, she turned to me and said, “You folks are angels.” A sweet pup walked over carrying a new toy in his mouth and rested his paws on my knee when I bent down to greet him. His tail wagged until he and his smiling guardian rounded the corner out of sight.
The Downtown Eastside is one of Canada’s most placed-at risk communities, where many residents spend their days on the streets. Folks are either unhoused or seeking relief and community away from the under-resourced single room occupancy buildings (SROs) where they live. Many people are living on extremely limited incomes, like disability assistance or pensions, and can’t afford the ever-rising cost of living in our city.
In the heart of the Downtown Eastside, where life’s hardships often loom large, there’s a remarkable testament to love and resilience in the form of pet guardians. Each year, I hear stories of connection, family, sacrifice, and unconditional love from people with pets. I have heard people say they didn’t know how they would afford groceries that week, but they had bought a new bag of pet food with their last $30. In turn, their animals provide companionship and joy that helps get them through difficult days.
A youth who stopped by the event shared that she had been precariously housed with roommates for several months. Recently, she lost her housing because of having a dog. She chose to keep her beloved companion with her rather than to be housed without him. She is not alone in this difficult decision; unhoused individuals who have pets are often forced to choose between shelter and their animal companions and, as a result, are more likely to sleep unsheltered than those without pets.
For a long time, a common public opinion has been that pet guardianship should be limited to people deemed wealthy enough to “afford” it. But human-animal families come in all shapes, sizes, and income levels. The “don’t get a pet if you can’t afford the vet” mentality ignores circumstances beyond a pet guardian’s control, while dismissing the profound trauma that both pets and their guardians can be subject to when forced to separate. It also does not account for the many animals who come into their guardians’ lives unplanned.
One couple I spoke with had taken in a dog and her litter of puppies twelve years earlier from a friend who could no longer care for them. They spent long nights caring for the newborns and ensuring they were all receiving enough food. Eventually, they rehomed all but one of the dogs. The runt of the litter, Remy-Roo, became like their own baby. When she was afflicted with a life-threatening pyometra infection before they had a chance to have her spayed, they scraped together funds for her emergency surgery. As I saw the three of them together, Remy-Roo snuggled into them, licked their faces, and looked at them like they were her whole world. Her bright eyes and slightly greying fur spoke of a lifetime of happy memories.
Their story – taking in a pet from someone who didn’t have the capacity to keep their animal at home anymore – was echoed by nearly everyone I spoke with at Because They Matter. A man had taken in a cat from his ailing mother. A woman was regularly watching and walking a dog whose senior guardian had limited mobility. A man cared for his neighbour’s dog each time she had to work.
Research tells us that this phenomenon is well understood by people from low-income communities. In a recent study, one participant stated, “A lot more people who live in poverty or are low-income are more willing to rescue animals, because there’s this greater sense of community.”
This mutual aid within the community is sorely needed. In the wake of rising costs of living, people living in poverty face a growing number of barriers to keeping their pets. Financial struggles continue to be one of the top reasons people surrender their pets to shelters. And with animal shelters across Canada still struggling to meet the surge in demand, there is often nowhere for animals to go.
The solution for animals in loving, low-income families is not to hand them off to people with more resources, but to make more resources available to the people who already care for them.
The Vancouver Humane Society’s McVitie Fund program is one such resource. The program provides life-saving veterinary support to pet guardians living on a low income, saving them from the heart-wrenching decision of watching their pet suffer or giving them up to get the help they need to survive. Demand for the program has skyrocketed over the past five years, rising from about one animal helped each week in 2019 to an average of 15 each week in 2024.
The stories I heard this weekend are a testament to the deep, unwavering commitment that loving guardians in the Downtown Eastside have to their animals, despite facing their own hardships. These animals are essential members of the community; they are family members who provide love, companionship, and a sense of purpose.
By embracing a culture of empathy and support, we can ensure that these human-animal families stay together, because they matter.
Several hundred residents of the Downtown Eastside community visited the Because They Matter table in Pigeon Park on Sunday, July 20, all eager to pick up high-quality supplies for their beloved pets. Event participants also spoke with many pet guardians about accessing the VHS’s free veterinary care assistance program.
Each person who connected with the team had a unique journey, and all had incredible bonds with their pets.
Here are some of the amazing people and pets who visited the Vancouver Humane Society’s table in Pigeon Park and shared their shared their stories of resilience and unconditional love. All photos by vencreative.ca.
The VHS team and participants setting up for Because They Matter.
Because They Matter event participants.
VHS Director Chris and his daughter, Rayna ready to hand out donated dog toys!
The VHS was lucky to have help from Vegan Supply team members!
Guardian Nora posing with dog, Penny.
Lynnette and Todd the dog attended Because They Matter.
Natasha with beautiful dogs Zara and Princess.
To Live For generously donated their popular power balls to hand out at the evemt.
Jon and Remy-Roo the dog visited us back in 2024 as well! We were delighted to see them return and to hear Remy-Roo is doing so well.
Heather and Hazel, a lovely 14-year-old rescue dog.
Jollene with dogs Cumo and Drekle.
Because They Matter participants helped find items for pet guardians.
The Because They Matter table was busy!
Cori and dog, Missy.
Generously donated leashes, collars and harnesses were so appreciated by those who visited the Because They Matter table.
Lucky the dog attended Because They Matter with their guardian, Brian.
Joanne and dogs Lily-Pilly and Trixie.
Virchew generously donated food for dogs on the DTES.
Arash with happy dog Mickey, aka Mickey-Mouse.
Mike and sweet dog Zoe.
Ezekiel attended with a friend's dog, Monstar.
Tiffannii and dog Muchii-Doodles.
Vegan Supply donated dog food to the Because They Matter event.
In all, the VHS team and event participants handed out thousands of pet supplies and hundreds of pamphlets about the Vancouver Humane Society’s veterinary assistance program.
The VHS’s veterinary support program helps animals get the care they need while staying with their loving families. The need for this program is growing every year, and it is essential that this need is met to make sure loved animals get the care they require without having to be surrendered to the already overflowing shelter and rescue system. The VHS’s veterinary support program is only possible through the help of donations from animal lovers like you.
Can you make a donation towards the VHS’s $25,000 Because They Matter fundraising goal to help animals and the people who love them? Right now all donations to the Because They Matter fundraiser will be matched by a generous donor, up to $5,000!
Loui's guardian told us how much Louis loves to run around, but that sometimes the pavement can be hard on his paws. Louis was able to get some new boots, a rain jacket, and more!
Several hundred residents of the Downtown Eastside community visited the Because They Matter table in Pigeon Park on Sunday, July 21, all eager to pick up high-quality supplies for their beloved pets. Event participants also spoke with many pet guardians about accessing the VHS’s free veterinary care assistance program.
Each person who connected with the team had a unique journey, and all had incredible bonds with their pets.
Here are some of the amazing people and pets who visited the Vancouver Humane Society’s table in Pigeon Park and shared their shared their stories of resilience and unconditional love.
King Loui was excited about the treats and food available at the Because They Matter table this year.
The Because They Matter event participants helped table visitors find the pet supplies they needed for their beloved companions.
Bill told us that his cat Angel saved his life. He also said that Angel provides comfort to a lot of the folks on the DTES.
A sweet pup poses with their guardian after receiving a new harness from the Because They Matter table.
This beautiful dog was eager to make new friends at the Because They Matter table. She got a stylish new jacket, some treats and food, and a brand new collar.
This lovely dog's guardian carefully tried on different harnesses to make sure they found the perfect fit.
Loui's guardian told us how much Louis loves to run around, but that sometimes the pavement can be hard on his paws. Louis was able to get some new boots, a rain jacket, and more!
Mr. Brady's guardian told us Mr. Brady has healed many people's souls. Him and Zelda are their guardian's pride and joy.
Some of the VHS team before the event wrapped up.
Angel the cat spent some time cuddling with Because They Matter volunteers while her guardian picked up some new cat toys for her!
Remy-Roo and her guardians.
There was a long line-up to get to the Because They Matter tables this year!
Many visitors to the Because They Matter table knew Chanel the dog and her guardian. She's a friendly and popular member of the community.
In all, the VHS team and event participants handed out thousands of pet supplies and hundreds of pamphlets about the Vancouver Humane Society’s veterinary assistance program.
The VHS’s veterinary support program helps animals get the care they need while staying with their loving families. The need for this program is growing every year, and it is essential that this need is met to make sure loved animals get the care they require without having to be surrendered to the already overflowing shelter and rescue system. The VHS’s veterinary support program is only possible through the help of donations from animal lovers like you.
Can you make a donation toward VHS’s $15,750 Because They Matter fundraising goal to help animals and the people who love them?
Members of Parliament have voted unanimously to criminalize coercive control, a pattern of behaviour that can perpetuate domestic abuse.
A new bill to criminalize coercive control has passed unanimously at the House of Commons and will move onto the next stage at Senate. Thanks to the advocacy of Humane Canada, this animals are recognized in the new legislation.
Coercive control often involves abusers threatening, manipulating, or harming companion animals to exert control over their human victims. The new bill would criminalize these behaviours, including:
Attempted and threatened violence toward an intimate partner’s animal
Controlling or attempting to control the manner in which an intimate partner cares for their companion animal
Thank you to everyone who advocated for animals to be included in this bill!
P.S. Did you know that the VHS offers a free trauma-informed training for people working in animal services, which includes stories from survivors of coercive control involving their companion animals? This training can help animal service providers to better understand the varied experiences of animal guardians in the community and to create safer, happier outcomes for animals and humans alike.
Bill 159 from Parliament 43 Session 1 of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, 2024.
A new law in Ontario has made puppy mills illegal in the province and introduced greater protections against the unethical breeding and sales of puppies. The Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales (PUPS) Act received Royal Assent in Ontario on June 6.
Advocates from Ontario including Laurie Ristmae, the founder of ARF Ontario and the executive director of the East London Animal Hospital, called this bill “a huge step in the right direction” when it was tabled in December. Ristmae noted that enforcement of the law will be key.
Other advocates like Camille Labchuk from Animal Justice are calling for the law to be strengthened, with proposed changes including requiring breeders in Ontario be registered and licensed.
Grassroots advocates have the power to mobilize communities and influence policies to improve animal well-being.
In this month’s episode of The Informed Animal Ally, two grassroots advocates share their experiences and the lessons they’ve learned in calling for change for animals.
Note: This written discussion has been edited for length.
Featured Guest: Barbara La Pointe
Librarian
Barbara has volunteered her time to several animal welfare projects in Canada and the United States since 1998. She is responsible for a national campaign asking Canada’s largest classifieds site to ban the commercial sale of animals on its site. This campaign has gained national media attention and the support of 464,000 individuals, 8 major corporations and 31 animal welfare organizations.
Featured Guest: Tessa Vanderkop
Director, Vancouver Humane Society
Tessa is a Social Purpose Strategist with the United Way Social Purpose Institute where she is helping business to become an engine for good in society. She is also a passionate conservationist and led the Ivory-Free Canada campaign with Elephanatics, which received support from more than 700,000 Canadians.
Amy: To start us off, I’d love to hear more about how you both became interested in animal advocacy.
How Barbara began advocating for companion animals
Barbara: I lived in the U. S. for seven years. And when I came back to Quebec in a small town located on the island of Montreal, I was floored to see that puppies and kittens were still being sold at the pet store at my local shopping center. So I wanted to change things.
That’s where it started for me.
How Tessa began advocating for elephants and wildlife
Tessa: I think I was born an animal lover. I mean, even as a kid, I had all my little stuffed animals and I would build veterinarians for them and get my mom’s tea cozies and cover them up and say goodnight every night to them.
So I think it was just the way I was born.
And then I was at work in Toronto and I was at the Toronto Convention Centre and one of the publishers at that time had decided to rent an elephant for a campaign. And this elephant was in this convention centre. When I still think about it, I get quite emotional.
I just remember looking at it and thinking, what the heck is going on here? It was just such a disconnect for me. And then it took me probably a few years to do something with that initial thing.
And then I found out that a circus was coming to Canada. And I remember at that time thinking, well, I know how to write. I know how to do publicity, so I’m just going to create as much trouble for the circus as I possibly can. And that’s what I did.
I just chased the circus across Canada and I would send press releases and information to town councils and the mayor. I’d alert local TV and media. And I’d try and reach out to local advocacy groups.
And that was sort of the beginning of connecting a passion with skills that I thought I had.
Amy: That’s so lovely. What a great start to advocacy, but challenging things to have to deal with.
Campaigning for animals
Amy: We heard both of your backgrounds at the beginning of the episode, but I’d like to ask each of you to speak a little bit more about the campaigns you’ve worked on, provide more details, maybe some challenges and successes.
Barbara’s campaigns for companion animals
Barbara: When my local shopping center was still selling cats and dogsat the pet store, I started to attend every council town council meeting in 2012. Every month I went to encourage my city to adopt a bylaw requiring that dogs and cats and rabbits sold in pet store to be sterilized and be sourced from animal shelters.
So I started in 2012 and the bylaw was finally adopted in 2015. So I had started to learn to be patient at that time.
And it’s during those town council meetings that several town councilors kept coming back with the argument that we could not adopt such a bylaw for pet stores or combat pet overpopulation as breeders will still continue to sell animals online on classified sites.
Advocating to stop pet sales on Kijiji
Barbara: So in the summer of 2013, I decided to research the topic and the problems associated with the sale of animals on Kijiji, Canada’s most popular classified site. And I launched a campaign, so it’s been over 10 years now with Kijiji.
The problem that I found was that classified sites were unable to distinguish responsible breeders from breeders who, without regard for animal welfare and the buyer, profit from the sale of animals.
So over the past 10 years, I’ve collected numerous media stories of sick puppies and kittens sold on Kijiji. I gathered testimonials from disappointed Kijiji users, the comments from veterinarians and animal shelters to demonstrate that yes, there are too many buyers that continue to be cheated by unscrupulous and unethical breeders on classified sites like Kijiji.
Too many animals suffering from health problems, often due to rearing and breeding conditions, are sold on this site. That leads to veterinary costs to new guardians and inflicts them with unnecessary emotional and financial stress.
So that’s what me and 465,000 individuals who signed this petition want; we want the leader of Canada’s classified site, Kijiji, to set an example. Animals should not be sold on this site.
Puppy meals and unethical breeders may continue to exist, even if Kijiji Canada stops the sale of animals, but at least they will not give them an easy platform to thrive on. So that’s the goal of this campaign.
Chantelle: That’s such an important message, especially when we’re seeing so much overpopulation and overcrowding in the shelter and rescue system.
There’s so many animals out there who need homes.
Tessa’s advocacy for wildlife
Amy: Tessa, can you share more about the background of the campaign that you’ve been working on?
Tessa: Yeah, for sure. After chasing the circus around for a couple of years, I woke up one morning and I’d heard about a group called the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos.
They were based out of the United States and they organized kind of a global awareness day about the threats facing wildlife in Africa, so elephants and lions and rhinos and so forth. It was a call to action to organize an event. And so I woke up and was like, I’m going to organize an event.
I just Googled elephant advocacy Vancouver. And I found Fran Duthie, who is the founder of Elephanatics. We joined forces and we organized, along with Leanne Fogarty, a number of those annual marches.
And then it was only after the last one where I think we were like, okay, so this is great. We have people coming out to these, but what are we really doing?
And so that’s when we switched tactics. And we really looked at how Canada was enabling the sale of ivory and what that was doing and rhino horn.
Stopping the import of ivory and rhino horn in Canada
Tessa: We pivoted our advocacy towards getting the government to change the actual regulations around importing elephant ivory and rhino horn.
We started with a letter to then-minister Catherine McKenna and it was actually Marylee Davies who said, well, maybe you could get a couple of signatures from other like-minded organizations.
So she gave me some names of some people. We added those names to the letter, but then my colleagues, Fran and Leanne just kind of went crazy. It’s like, well, if we can get three signatures, why can’t we get more? We got a hundred signatures for that letter globally.
So for every letter we wrote, we had this activated network that was willing to support what we were looking for.
And later on, that ended up being quite helpful.
Fran had started our Facebook page. She went out and learned everything about social media. We have 20,000 followers on the Elephanatics Facebook page.
And then Leanne said, well, why don’t we do a petition? And we’re like, yeah, okay, let’s do the petition. We’ll probably get like a hundred signatures, like a thousand signatures.
And that’s when we really started understanding that Canadians did not want, and did not know that we still allowed the legal trade of ivory. So we ended up getting like a thousand signatures, easily, 10,000, and then 20,000, we were like, holy smokes, what is going on?
And that’s when it just kept growing. That Change.org petition is over 700,000 now.
And so that’s not the end of the campaign. We ended up collaborating with other organizations, but that was definitely when we knew we were zeroing in on something.
Chantelle: Wow, that is so impressive. I think it’s so inspiring that it just takes that first spark of identifying that there’s something wrong and just look how much you can accomplish.
Successes in grassroots animal advocacy
Chantelle: I would love to hear more about the successes that you’ve both seen from your work.
Spayed and neutered rescue pets for adoption
Barbara: Yes. With the pet store bylaw, like I said, after three years of campaigning, going to monthly council meetings and writing open letters in the newspapers, asking residents to send an email to counselors, my city finally adopted the bylaw that dogs, cats and rabbits sold in pet stores must be sterilized and be sourced from animal shelters.
We were one of the first cities actually in Quebec to have such bylaw. So that was a great success.
Trap, Neuter, Return, Maintain for community cats
Barbara: Another campaign I worked on is after adopting three stray cats that were roaming in my backyard, I went again to town council meetings asking them this time to implement a Trap, Neuter, Return, Maintain program (TNRM) for community cats.
Again with the help of residents, same thing, same council meetings, open letters and newspapers asking residents to send letters. The program was implemented in 2019 in my small town and is still running today.
It’s fun to see neighbors who still ask me about the program and want to get their permits and stuff like that.
Progress for classified sites
As far as Kijiji, Kijiji today is still selling animals on its site, but I would say that my petition has gathered over 465,000 signatures so far. I see it as a success because it’s 465,000 individuals who are aware of the issue surrounding animals sold on classified sites.
That’s 465,000 individuals who are discussing this matter with a family member, a friend, or a coworker. And that’s 465,000 individuals not buying animals on classified sites.
It’s day by day driving the public discourse to a point where politicians are increasingly compelled to take concrete actions when it comes to the sale of animals on classified sites.
I would like also to add that the classified site Used.ca, based in British Columbia, banned profiting from household pets in 2015. They commented that the Kijiji petition was one of their motivators behind the decision, so this petition is also helping others, other companies, businesses, and individuals to base their decision on, so to me, it’s a success.
Amy: Thanks so much for sharing those. I think something that I end up having a hard time with in advocacy is when you have big goals, seeing all the intermediary steps as successes. It’s so easy to get a feeling of sort of like, Oh, but this one thing hasn’t happened, but it’s so good to see sort of like the process of getting there.
And particularly what Barbara brought up around public attitude change. The only way you’re going to see legal change is when you have really the vast majority of the public on side.
Partnerships in advocacy
Amy: Partnerships play a big role in getting the public on side. Can you speak to the partnerships you’ve made to advance your work for animals?
Tessa: I think it’s so interesting that Barbara, that you use your town council as the muscle for change, because I used to sit on one of the city of Burnaby’s sustainability committee, and it was really always interesting to me that it does make a difference, I think, using those tools as a way of driving change.
Reaching out to the company first
Barbara: For the pet store, I always ask the company first. I went ahead and I wrote a letter to the pet storeabout the problems and when they said no, that’s where I had to go step up somewhere else. That’s why I went to see my town council for that, but always ask communication first with the company.
I did this same thing with Kijiji before I started the petition. I wrote to them just to make sure that they were aware of the problem and there was no action. Then I said, well, I’m going to start a petition. I warned them in advance. I did the same thing at the town council meeting.
I think I’m really believe in open communication with your decision-makers.
Tessa: Yeah, I completely agree. Make friends, not enemies, right? I think is the key and build partnerships as much as you possibly can.
Finding unexpected allies in advocacy
Tessa: I would just add that we had hit a little bit of a roadblock. By this point, we had actually been approached by Humane Society International, Michael Bernard. They had already done a lot of work behind the scenes and had hit a wall, but our petition and our Facebook page and our letters, I think we managed to sort of build that grassroots kind of awareness for the issue.
I had an MP knock at my door and we ended up building a relationship and I educated him quite a bit about what was happening with elephants and the laws in Canada. He was really amazing. He just said, I will do what I can to galvanize some people behind the scenes; and he did exactly that.
One of the things that I’ve learned is you have to be open to talking to everybody because as an advocate, you’re that voice, and that voice and that story needs to be told. Because how else does it happen?
So you’d find me anywhere talking about elephants in the most unusual situations and you find unusual allies in that way.
Chantelle: Those partnerships are so important.
Tessa: Yeah, we would never have been able to do it. The ivory ban has been implemented by the way, it was implemented this January, but we would never have been able to do it without the help.
We worked very collaboratively with Humane Society International, and we had built a larger coalition with some other grassroots organizations, Global March for Elephants and Rhinos Toronto, Heather Craig and Janine Cavin from Elephant and Rhino Defenders, and Patricia Sims from World Elephant Day.
We all worked together, including initially Jane Goodall Canada. So I would say for us as Elephanatics in a grassroots organization, you would never, ever be able to do it. We could have tried it on our own, but, but I think it really takes collaboration.
Chantelle: Absolutely. And that’s so important because everyone who’s advocated for animals knows that there’s so many barriers to persuading decision makers to prioritize compassion for other species. So just having as many voices as possible doing that advocacy work is so important.
Barbara, could you also speak to some of your partnerships that you’ve made in your advocacy work?
Barbara: Of course. At the beginning, it was easy to get 30 animal rescue groups and shelters to sign up for the petitions like Humane Canada, Humane Society International Canada, the BC SPCA, the Winnipeg Humane Society, all those big societies and small shelters and big shelters.
But sometimes you find support in unexpected places.
Over the years, the Kijiji campaign has been endorsed by some of the largest banks, websites and telecommunication providers in the country because they were publishing ads on Kijiji pet sale pages. So I either directly wrote to those companies or I had the help of signers to write to them.
TD Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Toyota Canada, Tangerine Bank, National Bank of Canada, and TELUS have all pulled their ads off Kijiji pet sale pages in support of this campaign.
So yes, partnership is very important. And then when write to Kijiji, I tell them that, of course, but also tell the government about this. It also helps that it’s not only individuals, but also big companies and more shelters and rescue groups that support this campaign.
Tessa: Yeah. I can’t emphasize that enough, actually. Like you can find support in such unlikely places. Like for example, Mike Farnworth, who is the Minister of Safety, showed up to our marches and would come and support us and buy t-shirts and make donations. You just have no idea who’s an ally and who’s that real believer in wildlife justice and equity.
So I think that’s really key, just being really open minded, even when you feel beleaguered.
Chantelle: Absolutely. That’s absolutely true. We work with people in all sorts of industries in our work, and there’s so many people across so many types of jobs that are really passionate about animals.
Challenges in advocacy
Chantelle: Could you both speak to some of the challenges you faced in your advocacy?
Be flexible
Barbara: Last summer, when I asked Kijiji to have a human moderation team carefully reviewing at all pets ads and ensuring compliance with the policies, they turned me down again.
So I had to look for another solution. So I read and looked back at my campaign material and saw the comment from Used.ca when they banned the profiting from household pets across the entire network. The comment said that websites like ours are not qualified or capable of regulating the breeding of pets.
So it made me think, no one can better regulate pets. I saw this as a challenge.
I contacted every office of the Minister of Agriculture or relevant ministers in each province and territory in Canada to learn about the laws regulating dogs and cat breeders. I discovered that only the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick require licenses for dog and cat breeders.
So government permits could be the solution to regulating the sale of animals on classified sites. Maybe breeders permits are the way to go. If breeders are issued permits from the government, it may not guarantee that these breeders are conscientious or ethical, but it provides more protection to buyers since these breeders have licenses and can be easily traced. If a problem occurs, it allows for the government to make these breeders responsible and to comply with a certain standard of care, to inspect them or even sanction them, all of which Kijiji and classified sites cannot do.
So yes, when I’m faced with a challenge, don’t despair, go back, look around, be flexible, and maybe you have to change your strategy for the best outcome.
Find another way through
Tessa: Yeah, I completely agree with that. I always think of it as water over rocks; you’ve got to find a way through, one way or the other.
We were dealing with Mr. McKenna’s office and we weren’t getting anywhere. And I think there are times when you just have to realize that it’s just not going to happen in that way. So what else do you do? And in those instances, you know, we would try and find other allies.
So, you know Terry Beech was super helpful in finding allies and then really focusing on the Change.org petition and really raising awareness.
And then also because we were a grassroots organization, when the CITES negotiations would come up, we would really look at how Canada actually voted on all the different issues and report back out publicly on what that looks like.
I think a lot of the public just doesn’t understand how that world works and why would they, right? It’s not everyone’s job to do that, but there is sort of a systemic kind of way of keeping the world working in a “business as usual” way, and we needed to change that. So I think you just find other tactics to say, let’s take this kind of closed world and make it a little bit more open and share with people what this looks like and what they can do.
So that’s when we ended up using New Mode and doing a big MP letter-writing campaign because we’re like, well, we can’t get anywhere with the minister because they don’t care or they don’t have time or there’s some other issues. So let’s just write letters. And so we ended up getting 7,000 letters written to MPs all across the country.
And so then the minister has to respond because the MPs are writing her office saying what’s going on. So I think, like Barbara said, you’ve got to be flexible, you have to be open minded, you can’t be deterred.
Don’t give up
Barbara: I just want to say that don’t be discouraged. I was talking with a friend, she was talking about the podcast her husband was listening to. I listened to the podcast and brought me somewhere else, brought me to a story about credit cards having a policy cutting off adult sites. So I said, you know, why did they do it for the adult sites? Maybe they could also do it for classified sites for animals.
So I contacted all those credit card companies. It didn’t work out. They didn’t budge.
But even though it was a challenge, you always learn something. You know how to write better, how to influence better, negotiate better, every step of the way.
You learn new things outside your topic. But it brings you somewhere else and you go from there.
Know your audience
Tessa: I would completely agree with what Barbara just said. You have to understand a multitude of different audiences.
And so when I first started, I was marching in the streets with signs. I think that’s super necessary on some level, but I think not everyone is going to respond to that kind of advocacy and you have to be willing to learn and change and develop what I would call, and I find it almost offensive, but you know, the business case for why we should not be trading an elephant ivory. You have to be able to talk to people about numbers.
I think when you believe so passionately in something, it’s hard to strip that back and say, okay, well, this is how we have to approach this. But that’s your job is to do that. You’ve got to be dispassionate in your passion.
Barbara: Yeah, I totally agree with you, Tessa. It worked with me with council.
When I brought the numbers, it made a change. It’s sad, but money drives people. Money drives those cities and businesses and so we have to bring it to that level.
Lessons from animal advocates
Amy: I appreciate all the insights that you’re both sharing. It is absolutely step by step; it’s uncovering every little piece of what makes an issue.
These are some great lessons that you’ve learned. Are there any other lessons you’ve learned that you can share from your work?
Storytelling is key
Tessa: I was just thinking about things that helped us. As you say, Amy, if these are all really complex systemic issues, and how do you distill it to something that continues to engage the public and get that support?
And so I think the communications piece and the storytelling piece is so essential, like, how do you tell these stories? How do you continue to bring people along? Because I think it’s a lot to ask the general public to understand the complexities of everything, but what are ways and tools that we can use?
People in our community came up with these really easy to see graphics that told the story very quickly about what was happening to Africa’s elephant population. And so that became very shareable on social media.
And it’s just those kinds of things. How do we go from us to everyone else and what is the best way and the most compelling way and true way to tell the story that can gain traction.
So I’d say that that’s also something to really think about.
Communicate with the decision-makers you’re working to persuade
Barbara: Communication is very important. No matter how frustrating it can be, it can feel like you’re not being listened to, it’s better to partner with the people you want to change.
I’m proud to have open communication with Kijiji. That communication has led to improvements like the credit card verification requirements they did at the beginning in 2014 or 2015.
Official responses from your decision-makers help show that they are engaged and can guide you in choosing a path forward because you can find information on what they say and always keep learning about your petition topic, in and out and outside your topic.
Without that, you wouldn’t learn about new arguments to take to bring onto the table or know if ending pet sales was necessary and if Kijiji’s incremental changes have solved the problems; and they haven’t. So continue, never stop.
Tessa: I would completely agree with everything that Barbara said. When we started, Terry Beach, our MP, reached out to Minister Wilkinson and basically brought all of his senior policy people to a meeting with Terry and the minister to meet with Elephanatics and Humane Society International Coalition to talk about the elephant issue.
There were some really tough questions and the minister had to ask those questions. I totally understand that, but it’s collaborating with like minded people on all sides of the table, that’s how you make it. happen. You have to bring people along.
And to that point, there was a local a sale at an auction house of wildlife parts, including ivory and rhino horn. And people were outraged. They said, you have to talk to them.
I ended up just having this incredible conversation with the person who owned the auction house. And I think when we both left that conversation, I would say that we both would be able to have another conversation again and be able to continue that conversation because you can’t alienate people. You have to bring them along with you as best as you can. And so I think that’s really key.
Find support where you can
Chantelle: That’s an amazing point. My mind keeps coming back to your water over rocks analogy, Tessa, because there’s so many points where you can encounter resistance to change. And the more you take other routes and change public opinion and change policy and laws, the more these resistant sectors are going to have to keep up. It’s kind of like you’re slowly eroding the rocks.
Tessa: Oh, absolutely. And I think most people want to do the right thing. I don’t think everyone knows how systemically complex it is or why. And so you have to build that kind of emotional, I can do something and I will do something, and keep that conversation going and you’ll win more of those people over.
It’s a long process, but it’s really important to keep your eye on the ball.
Chantelle: Yeah. Just very slowly bringing the practice around; “this is the way things have always been done” isn’t a good enough reason to keep doing them that way.
Thinking of becoming a grassroots advocate?
Chantelle: Is there any final advice that you would give to people who are interested in taking those first steps into getting involved with grassroots advocacy?
Ask for support
Barbara: Ask support from anyone, people, companies, businesses. Like Tessa said, we never know where we’re going to find support in unexpected places.
Create Google alerts
Barbara: Create Google alerts relating to your campaign. You want to be aware because you can’t read all the news everywhere, but Google alerts have been really helpful for me.
Never give up
Barbara: And most importantly, never give up. I’ve been at this for a decade, but every minute of it has been worth it for the animals and the people who love them.
I always think about this at times when Kijiji says, no, no, no, no, no. I go to bed and I think of all the people who signed this, I’m going to back them up. I’m going to be there. I’m going to continue. So think about the people and the animals behind the petition. Never, never stop. Don’t give up.
Tessa: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more.
Remember your “why”
Tessa: I think what has motivated me, although I’ve worked on ivory and not elephants in captivity, but that elephant in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre changed me fundamentally as a person. And so everything I do for that poor elephant.
I think it’s not work if you’re passionate and you match it with your skills and you say, I’m going to do one thing every day.
Next episode
Please join us next month as we discuss the sucesses, opportunities, and challenges faced by animal shelters and rescues in British Columbia.
