PEI has proposed new legislation, the Animal Welfare Act, to replace the existing Companion Animal Protection Act. The proposed legislation caters to industry interests by introducing sweeping exemptions for animal-use industries.

While other provinces like Quebec and New Brunswick are getting serious about animal protection, the PEI Animal Welfare Act is a step in the wrong direction.

The PEI Animal Welfare Act should be amended to:

• change the requirement that an animal's suffering must be "extreme" before protections of the act are triggered;
• remove exemptions for cruel and unnecessary industrial agriculture practices such as extreme confinement and crowding, mutilations without painkillers, genetically manipulated rapid growth, and depriving farmed animals of virtually anything that is natural or enjoyable for their entire lives;
• include fish and marine mammals, which are currently entirely exempted from protection;
• create standards of care to provide clear direction on how animals under human care must be treated;
• require regular, unannounced inspections of animal facilities so that inspectors can stop hidden animal abuse and neglect;
• prohibit keeping exotic animals as pets and in circuses and zoos.

Please sign our petition calling on the government of PEI to ensure its animal welfare legislation protects animals, not industries that profit from animal exploitation!