The Issue:

We need your help to change a bad law in Ontario, a cruel law that most Ontarians don’t even know exists: the Animals for Research Act.

This bad law requires municipally-funded pounds to hand over dogs and cats, former family members, to research facilities for use as research subjects.

We need your help to convince Ontario’s Premier, the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, to amend this act and ban the practice of Pound Release, where unclaimed animal companions (pets) are sold for use in laboratories.

The dogs and cats who share our homes are family. And we protect family.

That’s why Animal Alliance of Canada has launched our "No Pets in Research" campaign.

What if our animal family members become lost? What will happen to them while we are frantically searching for them?

Once the brief holding period in the pound is over these animals can be sold for a pittance to be used as experimental research subjects!

In one heartbreaking story, a much-loved dog named Royal was not even held for the required holding period and was sold to the University of Guelph. He was immediately deemed too old for research and was killed. His family was searching frantically for him during this period. Because of the Animals for Research Act, Royal did not make it home but died alone and afraid at a university research facility.

Read Royal’s story: https://www.animalalliance.ca/campaigns/pets-research/acquired/

Under the practice of Pound Release (sometimes referred to as Pound Seizure) dogs and cats are purchased from municipal pounds and used in research.  Many will be subjected to a life of pain and suffering and eventually killed and discarded as unwanted trash. Some will be used as training subjects but we are not told what procedures or how many are performed on them, how long each animal is held, and what happens to them when the procedures are completed. We are working hard to get this information but keep coming up against walls of silence. There is no public accountability and transparency about how they are used, where they came from and what ultimately happens to them. Once they enter this dark world, there is little over-sight or protection for them. Some pound animals have been used as test subjects for as long 10 years – a long and miserable life of pain and fear.

Terrifying numbers:

In Ontario, 2045 dogs and 4813 cats were sold from municipal pounds to research laboratories between the years of 2012 and 2015 (4 years).

Across Canada, 7,661 cats and 5,891 dogs were sold from pounds to research laboratories in 2015 alone, according to the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

The Act stipulates that researchers can buy a cat from a pound for $2.00 and a dog for $6.00.

When the Ontario government places such little worth on these animals it is not surprising that the researchers follow suit, viewing former family members as cheap disposable research subjects.

Pound release is widespread across Canada. But, Ontario is the only province that actually mandates this practice under the Animals For Research Act.

Tell Ontario’s Premier to amend the Animals for Research Act to ban the use of lost pets from Ontario municipal pounds and shelters from animal experimentation, and to ban the import of lost, stray or abandoned pets for experimentation from other jurisdictions.

Follow our "No Pets in Research" campaign at www.nopetsinresearch.ca

Please, donate to Animal Alliance of Canada to help us fight this bad law and make Ontario pounds safe for homeless pets. https://www.animalalliance.ca/donate/

Facebook at: www.facebook.com/AnimalAllianceofCanada
Twitter at: AAC @Animal_Alliance

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If you are a resident of Ontario (have an address in Ontario - you can be any age) and would like to sign our formal petition to the Premier, please print it out here
https://www.animalalliance.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Pound_Seizure_Petition_2017.pdf

Fill it in and ask your friends to sign - the petition needs to be full of signatures. Then return the completed petition by mail to:

Animal Alliance of Canada - No Pets in Research,
#101-221 Broadview Avenue
Toronto, ON M4M 2G3

Only petitions that are full of names from Ontario residents are accepted by the Ontario Legislature. Thank you for all your help!