Dear Editor:
Ontario’s new Bill 35, which enacts the Captive Wildlife Protection Act, sounds great at first, applying across the board regulations to zoos.
However, it then goes on to state that only zoos can keep 99% of the animals commonly kept as pets. We are not talking about banning just lions, tigers and bears. The bill would ban such pets as hamsters, pet fish, birds, guinea pigs, geckos and bearded dragons. This is a massive overreach.
Families with severe allergies would be forbidden to have any pets, so all the pet fish and reptiles I grew up with would be illegal to own. Pet stores would stop selling products to care for any animals still in our care. Businesses who raise and sell so many animals for all of Canada will be driven out of province – businesses that prevent poaching of actual wild animals.
Please contact your local MPP and politely tell them to leave our pets alone.
Lance Henderson,
Centre Wellington
*Editor’s note: Bill 35 does not specifically ban the animals mentioned in this letter but it does introduce a licensing system for keeping certain animals.