{"id":275991,"date":"2025-06-05T23:56:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T23:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/animal-justice-sues-ontario-over-cruel-penned-dog-hunting-licences\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T23:56:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T23:56:52","slug":"animal-justice-sues-ontario-over-cruel-penned-dog-hunting-licences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=275991","title":{"rendered":"Animal Justice Sues Ontario over Cruel Penned Dog Hunting Licences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>TORONTO\u2014Animal Justice is suing the Ontario government over its decision to issue licences which appear to allow penned dog hunting facilities to operate in violation of the\u00a0<em>Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the lawsuit, Animal Justice is asking the Court to void three licences that appear to allow facility owners to release English foxhounds, American foxhounds, coonhounds, bloodhounds and harriers in pens in which red foxes are used as bait, allowing dogs of these breeds to terrorize foxes as they track and chase them for \u201ctraining\u201d as well as in competitions for prizes. Regulations under the Act prohibit using these larger breeds of dogs in penned hunting contests (or \u201ctrials\u201d) where red foxes are bait, unless the facility meets size requirements, which these three facilities do not.<\/p>\n<p>When Ontario bowed to hunting extremists and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/animaljustice.ca\/blog\/new-penned-hunting-licenses\">reversed<\/a>\u00a0a previous decision of the Mike Harris government to phase out this cruel bloodsport in the 1990s, the government justified the move by pointing to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadianpressnews.ca\/sports\/niche-dog-sport-divided-doug-fords-caucus-as-expansion-plan-killed-then-resurrected\/article_33de3a39-f93f-5f69-9181-ef28696288cd.html\">strict standards<\/a>\u201d that would be enforced to protect animals. Yet these three licences appear to allow the use of these larger dog breeds to hunt red foxes in pens in contests contrary to those regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In penned hunting facilities, dogs regularly catch captive wild animals, injuring, mauling, and even killing them. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in Canada that allows facilities to keep wild animals, including coyotes, foxes, and hares, in fenced-in areas to be used to \u201ctrain\u201d hunting dogs.\u00a0 Because of the cruelty involved, the archaic practice is also banned in most U.S. states.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In public, participants claim that captive wildlife are safe from injury. However, a 2023 Animal Justice\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/animaljustice.ca\/exposes\/undercover-dog-hunting-pen\">investigation<\/a>\u00a0revealed that dogs regularly injure, maim, and maul terrified wild animals who have no way to escape. The investigation also documented hunters admitting that pen owners have to bring in new wild animals to restock the pens, because dogs catch them throughout the year.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, documents obtained by Animal Justice through a Freedom of Information request also suggest that\u00a0<strong>no penned hunting facilities in the province have been inspected for approximately two years.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are so few laws to protect animals used for penned dog hunting in Ontario; the least the government can do is uphold and enforce them,\u201d said Kaitlyn Mitchell, lawyer and director of legal advocacy at Animal Justice.\u00a0 \u201cWe have been fighting to oppose the cruel penned hunting industry for years and now we hope that the Court will intervene to void these licences, which appear to allow penned fox hunting contests with these prohibited dog breeds, increasing the risk that foxes will be caught and ripped apart when chased by larger and faster dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Animal Justice and Coyote Watch Canada\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/animaljustice.ca\/blog\/penned-dog-hunting-ebr\">filed<\/a>\u00a0an application for review under the Environmental Bill of Rights, asking the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to revoke regulations passed by the Ford government to expand penned hunting in Ontario but the Ministry refused. The groups have also worked to highlight significant zoonotic\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.animaljustice.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2024-07-24-Penned-hunting-and-disease-concerns.pdf\">disease risks<\/a>\u00a0posed by these facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Contact:<\/p>\n<p>Josh Lynn<br \/>Public Relations Manager<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/animaljustice.ca\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"7e14120710103e1f1017131f12140b0d0a171d1b501d1f\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kaitlyn Mitchell<br \/>Director of Legal Advocacy<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/animaljustice.ca\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"395254504d5a515c555579585750545855534c4a4d505a5c175a58\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#13; &#13; TORONTO\u2014Animal Justice is suing the Ontario government over its decision to issue licences which appear to allow penned dog hunting facilities to operate in violation of the\u00a0Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.\u00a0\u00a0 In the lawsuit, Animal Justice is asking the Court to void three licences that appear to allow facility owners to release English [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[1330,42922,2634,3522,12721,49115,17460,57407,16867],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-275991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-animal","tag-cruel","tag-dog","tag-hunting","tag-justice","tag-licences","tag-ontario","tag-penned","tag-sues"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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