UPDATE JULY 6th, 2014: Costas Menegakis emails link to Justice for Animals in Service Act (Quanto's Law) has been introduced in Parliament. All Police Working Service animals, Armed Services Animals, and specially trained Service Animals ( such as Guide Dogs)
For more information:
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/05/12/pm-harper-announces-greater-protection-law-enforcement-service-and-military-animals#sthash.fBt0Jzl8.dpuf
UPDATE,MARCH 12th 2014: Received acknowledgement & thanks from Edmonton Deputy Chief of Police, Danielle Camplbell, in response to my email re: "Quanto's Law" Petition.
CANADA, this is our issue, let's mobilize, the world is watching!
In 1992, Police Service Dog Troy was the only Hamilton police dog to be killed on duty. There was a push to pass new legislation called Troy's Law intended to toughen penalites for those who harm an on-duty law enforcement animal. It never passed.
In 2006 an identical bill was tabled called Brigadier's Law after a Toronto Police Horse was deliberately run over. Brigadier was struck so hard that he was catapulted over the roof of the vehicle. Police say Brigadier may have saved Constable Bradfield's life by taking the brunt of the impact. Both of Brigadier's front legs were broken, the left one shattered so badly that he never could have recovered. An emergency task force was called in to shoot him right there on the street.
Now, there is Quanto's Law, named for an Edmonton Police Service Dog who was repeatedly stabbed to death last fall while apprehending a suspect.
In the words of Troy's handler, Paul Johnston as reported to Susan Clairmont of the Hamilton Spectator, "It's been 22 years and nothing has changed. It's time the law recognizes that police animals are an extension of our authority."
This new law, now supported by the Federal Government, would carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and fines of as much as $10,000.
We decide, not the animals themselves, that these working service animals will help enforce our laws, sometimes with their very lives. It is only right that we also support a realistic consequence for inexcuseable, intentional cruelty for those who choose to make them suffer needlessly in the line of duty.
