111,896 signatures pour dénoncer cruautés enver une chienne

[Animal 0]

Calgary (Canada)

Calgary Sun, Feb. 23, 2007

Daisy Duke may not have had a voice during her life but her cruel
torture and death have spurred on many other voices -- 111,896 to be
exact -- to speak on her behalf.

On Monday, Conservative Wild Rose MP Myron Thompson submitted a
massive petition to Parliament with more than 110,000 signatures
calling on the feds to put some teeth into Canada's antiquated animal
cruelty law.

The petition was an almost visceral response to what happened last
Oct. 8 when Daisy Duke, a Lab-border collie cross had all four of her
legs bound, a bag pulled over her head, duct tape wrapped around her
snout and a rope tied around her neck. She was then dragged behind a
vehicle in Didsbury, Alta., for one kilometre before being left on
the road to die slowly of a broken neck, back and pelvis.

Daisy Duke was discovered by another motorist who followed her trail
of blood. A local vet then promptly euthanized her.

Local residents were so outraged by this vicious assault on a
sentient being that Didsbury dog groomer Tamara Chaney launched the
legal petition.

The dog's owner, Daniel Charles Haskett, 19, has been charged with
animal cruelty. Another male, 17 at the time of the alleged offence,
has also been charged.

But even if someone is convicted and receives the maximum penalty for this heinous crime, under Canada's 115-year-old animal rights law,
the alleged perpetrators can be sentenced to only a maximum six
months in jail or a $2,000 fine. However, maximum sentences are
rarely meted out even for the most severe cases.

Reached in Ottawa yesterday, Thompson says he hopes this Parliament
will finally be able to pass a new animal cruelty law which would
increase the maximum jail term for animal cruelty to five years with
a maximum fine of $10,000.

"Daisy Duke died a horrible death. It's my hope that this petition
born from her terrible torture will help this Parliament to recognize
there is wide support to get this law passed," said Thompson.

This coming Monday, Bill S-213, will be debated in Parliament and
then will go to a committee for further debate but it's not the bill
animal rights people want passed. All Canadians who want to see the
kind of cruelty that happened to Daisy Duke treated seriously by our
courts want Ontario Liberal MP Mark Holland's private member's bill,
Bill C-373, to become the new animal cruelty law of the land. The
petition calls for the scrapping of Bill S-213 and the implementation
of Bill C-373.

The debate is expected to fall along those lines.

Frankly, however, the time for debate is long past. After all, back
in 1892 when the current law was written, Henry Ford was just putting
the finishing touches on his first car!

So, while hopeful, animal rights groups are not exactly holding their
breath awaiting a new law. After all, since 1999 there have been
numerous failed attempts to improve this limp law including, bills
C-17, C-15, C-15B, C-10, C-10B, C-22, C-50.

Michael O'Sullivan, executive director of the Humane Society of
Canada, says judges and Crown attorneys need to take crimes against
animals more seriously -- and apply the maximum penalty for the worst
cases.

"Yes, we need stronger laws and tougher penalties but in the meantime
everybody involved in the process now -- humane societies, police,
crown prosecutors and judges -- need to understand that the FBI
considers cruelty to animals one of the three primary indicators of
serious criminal behaviour," said O'Sullivan.

Even if there were no link between animal cruelty and rape, torture
and murder of humans -- and there is -- such behaviour should warrant
stiffer penalties.