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Under the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act
Consultation Timeline: January 27, 2025 – March 13, 2025 (45 days)
Ministry: Ministry of the Solicitor General
Animal Welfare Services (AWS), within the Ministry of the Solicitor General, is responsible for enforcing the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019 (PAWS Act) which establishes protections and standards of care that apply to all animals covered under the Act. The ministry is seeking input on standards such as facility, shelter, and animal care management and operations that service providers housing AWS must meet.
The ministry requires ongoing sheltering services throughout the province to provide the requisite care to relieve distress and promote positive welfare outcomes for animals in the ministry’s care. These standards may affect municipalities that provide animal service facilities, particularly regarding initial and ongoing compliance costs, documentation/reporting required, training, etc. The standards also relate to our ongoing collaboration with World Animal Protection to help advocate for a provincial regime to restrict the keeping of exotic wild animals in Ontario.
There are three distinct standards documents, broken into three broad categories of animals:
Companion Animal & Zoological Companion Animal
Equine & Farm Animal
Zoo Animal & Captive Wildlife
The Province designed a template to help collect feedback. Following consultation and approval, the standards would come into force at a future date to be determined and communicated by the ministry. The Province is seeking comments until March 13, 2025.