The PC government is putting an end to puppy mills in Ontario. It’s a good news story — on the surface. By weeding out the “bad actors” aggressively breeding dogs in decrepit conditions, rife with filth and disease, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner says the new Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act —appropriately known as the PUPS Act — will keep animals safe and prevent Ontarians from unknowingly buying sick puppies.
The main pillar of the law is a new host of penalties — the strongest in the country according to the government — that will fine puppy mill operators as much as $10,000 for violating a number of conditions, including overbreeding; leaving animals in unsanitary conditions; failing to separate animals with contagious diseases; or separating a puppy from its mother before the age of eight weeks. These are all common practices in puppy mills across Ontario.
The penalty increases steeply to $25,000 if any of these violations lead to the death of an animal.
“Through this bill, we’re taking a stand against unethical dog breeding practices and the horrific distress and harm that results from them across the province,” Kerzner told the Standing Committee on Justice Policy in May, ahead of the bill’s final reading and Royal Assent at the beginning of June.
It’s a significant public relations win for the PCs.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, puppy milling and backyard breeding exploded across Ontario. People stuck indoors during lockdowns sparked unprecedented demand as many tried to fill all the extra time with a pet companion.
Many advocates and pet care professionals attribute this demand with an uptick in parvo cases — an often fatal disease that infects puppies and can spread quickly. The disease attacks the puppy’s gastrointestinal system, slowly killing the animal through dehydration as they are unable to eat or drink. Puppies infected with parvo are quickly sold to unsuspecting people who hand over hundreds, in some cases thousands, of dollars, only to watch their newest family member stop eating, stop drinking and eventually lose the will to live as the disease rages through its tiny body.
Even without being forced to watch your young dog waste away before your eyes, the idea of a puppy mill is deplorable to most, and the PC vow to end it is welcome news.
But it is also misleading.
The PC bill, as written, will do next to nothing to disrupt the puppy mill industry in Ontario. The government has no clue as to the true scale of the problem in the province given that there are no reliable statistics on the number of puppy mills currently operating, and there is nothing in the legislation that will help identify them. While the new penalties could certainly act as a deterrent, the standards they apply to are vague, superficial and completely inadequate, advocates state, making them nearly impossible to enforce.
This means the government is attempting to close puppy mills by increasing fines on standards that are difficult to enforce, for puppy mill operations they do not know the locations of.
“The legislation is a mess, but also the enforcement and the transparency is a mess and it all comes together and it all leaves the taxpayers of this province completely in the dark,” Donna Power, one of the founders of the Humane Initiative, an organization dedicated to identifying and exposing puppy mills in Ontario, states.
It also allows puppy mills to continue operating in the shadows.
“It’s really reaching a crisis point in Ontario. The pandemic brought on a whole new raft of new dog breeders — not just puppy mills, backyard breeders too — and they flooded the marketplace,” Camille Labchuk, the executive director of Animal Justice, states. “The Act is currently just window dressing.”
This means the government is attempting to close puppy mills by increasing fines on standards that are difficult to enforce, for puppy mill operations they do not know the locations of
The first thing you notice in the video is not what you’re seeing, but what you’re hearing.
It’s a cacophony of what sounds like hundreds of dogs, barking, whining and yelping all at once. The video was shot inside the upper floor of a barn in Wellesley, Ontario and shared on the Stop Mills Now Facebook page.
The puppy mill is a licensed “kennel” by the Town of Wellesley through its municipal licensing system. Under the new PUPS Act that the PCs claim will put an end to puppy mills, this type of operation — which appears to be able to house nearly 100 dogs — is perfectly legal.
The new penalties PUPS creates will be enabled through another piece of animal welfare legislation known as Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act (PAWS), approved in 2019. This was a key moment in Ontario’s animal protection regime as it saw the provincial government take over enforcement of animal welfare issues, something previously handled by the non-profit Ontario SPCA.
Advocates state both pieces of legislation lack sufficient detail to be able to apply necessary fines.
For example, the PUPS Act has certain prohibitions against leaving dogs in unsanitary conditions, but it uses language that is open to interpretation. The dog’s living area must be kept “sufficiently clean” and washed out “as frequently as necessary” and “appropriate action” must be taken to address things like fur matting or parasites.
Similar vague language is found in PAWS, which states animals must be provided with “adequate and appropriate” food and water; “adequate and appropriate” medical attention; “adequate and appropriate” ventilation, light, sanitary conditions and kept safe from harmful temperatures.
Under PUPS, it would still be legal for a breeder to confine 100 breeding dogs in cages 24/7 without giving them any exercise.
“That’s obviously what people would think of as a puppy mill and that’s not illegal,” Labchuk says.
Upgrading these Standards of Care are foundational to any shift in animal protections in Ontario, but there has been an unwillingness from government officials to make the necessary changes, according to Power.
“It is so broad and subjective,” she says, adding that “appropriate and adequate” is something that can not be measured. “Each person could have a different measuring stick for what they deem as appropriate.”
Power states that standards need to be specific and measurable. For example, adequate temperature should be replaced with a set guideline for warmth and cooling. The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, in its Code of Practice for kennels, recommends a temperature between 10 and 25 degrees Celsius as a “comfortable resting temperature” for dogs.
This Code, which is widely recognized as the gold standard for animal care in the country, also includes guidelines for exercise (daily); enclosure space (outlining various square footages based on the size of the dog); sanitation (enclosures cleaned twice daily)—among many others.
Advocates have pushed the government to use this Code of Practice as guidance for their own standards of care, but have been refused.
“So not only is it impossible for authorities to know where anybody in the province is, that is breeding dogs, there’s also just very poor standards that make it very difficult to enforce,” Labchuk states.
According to Brent Ross, a spokesperson for the Solicitor General, there are over 100 inspectors across Ontario currently enforcing the PAWS Act (the government would not provide the actual number of inspectors). He states Ontario is a “leader in the protection of animals” and it has a “transparent and accountable system” for protecting them.
It is a classification many who work in the animal welfare space disagree with.
“Our work is really to pull the veil back on this government’s arrogant stance that the people of Ontario will swallow whatever they give them,” Power states.
As part of her work, Power spends time online working to expose puppy mills and backyard breeders. The information and evidence she gatherers is shared with the PAWS inspectors and posted online. She tells The Pointer she rarely receives any response back from the government to her myriad of complaints.
Despite its claim to be a “leader” in protecting animals, the PCs have absolutely no idea how many puppy mills are currently operating in Ontario. Kerzner, Ontario’s Solicitor General, who is responsible for this department, faced a series of questions during the bill’s passage through committee, many of which he could not provide concrete answers for—neither could his deputy solicitor general Mario Di Tommaso.
“Given the nature of puppy mills, they are primarily run underground, and they are indeed very, very secretive. They don’t advertise that they are the bad actors, so putting an estimate on the number of unethical puppy mills is very, very difficult,” Tomasso admitted. He then referenced a Toronto Star article that estimated there are about 2,000 puppy mills in Canada, most of which are in Ontario and Quebec.
“That’s the best estimate we have,” he said.
When questioned how the PUPS Act will be enforced, Kerzner’s response was nonsensical, noting they will “enforce the act by the act” and “we’re going to enforce the act by setting the tone and the standard and the expectation.”
Kerzner made no commitment to additional resources for enforcement. Advocates have told The Pointer the government has repeatedly said additional resources are not available for increased enforcement. All enforcement is currently based on public complaints — and even then it’s unclear how effective these investigations are.
All enforcement is currently based on public complaints—and even then it’s unclear how effective these investigations are
NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam highlighted that when the Ontario government took over the enforcement from the OSPCA, the budget was increased by $15 million, but enforcement numbers since then have absolutely cratered.
Since January of 2020, the PC government’s AWS department has issued 12,280 orders related to animal welfare concerns. Between 2015 and 2018, the OSPCA issued 16,148 orders. Over that same time period, the OSPCA laid 1,946 charges. Since 2020, the PC government has laid “over 1,100 charges”, Ross states.
Again, an actual figure was not provided by the government.
It means despite having a significantly higher budget, the enforcement regime under the Ontario government is being less effective.
Under questioning at committee, Kerzner attributed this to growing pains within the department, noting that “I think we’ve come a long way in four years. I think we’ve done a very good job.”
“If an organization receives significantly more money, one would anticipate that the outcome would be better and that would ensure us seeing more orders issued, more charges laid, more prosecution through the courts,” Wong-Tam stated. “Why are we not seeing more outcomes from PAWS? This organization is no longer new. They’ve now been around for almost five years, since they were created in 2019. Why are we not seeing the results?”
Kerzner had no answer.
Neither Kerzner or his spokesperson were able to provide an average response time for enforcement officers to respond to a complaint from the public, only that it is done in an “appropriate and timely manner”.
Advocates say there is an easy solution that will help limit the number of bad breeders in the space, and allow enforcement officers to focus on identifying and exposing the large commercial puppy mills: a licensing system.
Currently there is no requirement for anyone looking to breed dogs to register with anyone at all. While there are a patchwork of municipal licensing regimes that require registration and inspection of the space being used for the operation, as in the Wellesley example, this is not effective at keeping animals safe from harm
A province-wide licensing system that requires breeders to register would not only give the government a better idea of how many people are doing this in Ontario, but it would also help to limit the amount of exploitation that currently happens online. The majority of puppies today are sold through websites like Kijiji or other online marketplaces. Deals are done in cash, often in set locations away from the farm or backyard breeding location. This not only allows bad operations to remain hidden, but it gives the person purchasing the dog few options for accountability should the dog they just purchased for $1,000 suddenly fall ill.
“If you see a dog for sale online it is almost always a dog from a puppy mill,” Labchuk states. “Typically, dogs are being trafficked from a puppy mill.”
An effective licensing system would require the posting of the breeder’s registration number, alongside online ads, which would provide those looking to purchase a dog with an avenue of recourse should their puppy suddenly fall ill.
Quebec has a licensing system for breeders, and while it’s not perfect, it allowed the government to get an idea of the true state of puppy milling in the province. Advocates state it could be a jumping off point for Ontario.
“The biggest problem with the puppy mill issue is the fact that breeders are operating without any sort of registration, without anyone knowing where they are and without any sort of government oversight,” Ewa Demianowicz, senior campaign manager for Human Society International/Canada told Queen’s Park in May.
“I think it would be a good start for Ontario to model this type of licensing system in order to determine what is happening on the ground—having a record of breeders throughout the province — and then follow up with proper enforcement of these facilities, going in and seeing what is happening and making sure that these operations are following legislation.”
While commercial puppy mills or backyard breeders, who have been operating for years without issue, may ignore the requirement to register and find other means to sell their dogs, the province could still benefit greatly from this system and the revenue it creates, advocates state.
The government has repeatedly claimed there are no additional resources for enforcement; but a licensing system could not only generate revenue from annual fees, but allow the government to tax the earnings of these breeders — which can reach startling levels.
According to estimates from Power, who has been working in this field for over 30 years, conservative estimates suggest puppy millers with 20 breeding dogs (a conservative number for most commercial operations); breeding each dog twice a year (dogs are often bred back to back); with a litter of six puppies each can generate $192,000 if each of those dogs is sold for $800 (a conservative estimate as many breeds go for much higher prices).
Ross did not explain why a licensing system was not considered as part of the PUPS Act, or whether one could be implemented as part of any future regulations.
COVID lockdowns may have led to a significant increase in the number of people looking for a new family pet, but when the lockdowns lifted many changed their minds.
Either the need to return to the office eliminated their ability to spend time with the dog; or the financial pressures from the increasing costs of living due to inflation lead many to tighten their budgets. Whatever the cause, municipal and non-profit shelters are bursting at the seams with animals without a home.
While this has led to a drop in demand, it has not stopped puppy millers from continuing to breed their animals, and when the small bundles of fur do not find a home — they are often abandoned.
Mike Mulick, the Manager of Animal Services for the City of Brampton explained to MPPs in May that his department has already responded to two such incidents in 2024.
“While my staff have rescued many abandoned puppies before it was too late, they’ve also had to recover deceased dogs that, in the days prior, were posted on classified ads,” he said. “One only has to look at these classified sites to see puppy mill or backyard breeders reducing their prices from $1,300 to $800 to $300, indicating that they need these dogs gone as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it’s usually just a matter of time before these dogs end up on our streets.”
For advocates, there is still a chance for the government to get this right. The regulations that will dictate how the PUPS Act will be deployed by enforcement officers are still in the drafting stage.
The changes are desperately needed to quell a problem that has reached unprecedented proportions in Ontario.
“Unfortunately, the market is flooded with dogs. Humane societies, shelters, rescues are absolutely jammed full due to owner surrenders and also even some breeders who are saying, 'I don’t want this.' They don’t want an 18-week-old puppy, because they now have to feed that puppy. We’re seeing so many dogs dumped and abandoned in the middle of nowhere,” Power told Queen’s Park.
“I can’t even say how much this is a crisis…We can make so many changes that will make a direct impact on this crisis…It truly is a crisis like we’ve never seen in Ontario.”
Joel Wittnebel is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based at The Pointer.
