This Social Bee has been buzzing around the community helping to change our municipal bylaws in the Cowichan Valley and working today’s changing federal laws.
Many of you may be aware of the horrible animal abuse case of Teddy, in the Duncan area. A group of us local women - Christi Wright, Jen Metz and Kelly Olsen - started a group called United For A Paws to combat the ongoing issue of animal cruelty. We created an event called Cowichan Cares, in which we had all our local leaders speak on the matter and discuss changes that need to be made.
In attendance were: Alistair MacGregor MP; Doug Routley MLA; Phil Kent, Mayor of Duncan; Jon Lefebure, Mayor of the Municipality of North Cowichan; Chief William Seymour, Cowichan Tribes; Erika Paul, BC SPCA; Joyce Behnsen, Councillor for the Municipality of North Cowichan; and Jon Katzman, veterinarian.
First up on the docket was Alistair MacGregor, our local Member of Parliament. He talked about how our federal animal cruelty bills have not been updated in more than 100 years, which are very outdated. After the Cowichan Cares event, he spoke up at the House of Commons demanding the Ministry of Justice to review the laws. We are so excited to see where this will take us federally.
We had two representatives from the Municipality of North Cowichan who spoke about the importance of implementing bylaws as there are no bylaws in place that protect animals from cruelty.
We were so lucky to have Chief William Seymour in attendance at our event and he discussed the importance of animal welfare in the community and he vowed to work alongside the BC SPCA to amend its bylaws.
Lastly, Erika Paul from the BC SPCA discussed the five freedoms for animals and how communities should adopt bylaws that allow animals to have these freedoms. She will be working closely with our community members to aid in helping the implementation of bylaws similar to the BC SPCA Animal Responsibility Model Bylaw.
This event was not only desperately needed in our community to evoke change, it was eye opening to see how united we are as a whole in the community. I have learned that if you stand up for something you believe in, change can actually happen. For more information on the group our Facebook page is ‘United For A Paws.’
We are excited to announce after our event we sat on a delegation at the Municipality of North Cowichan and put forth our bylaw changes and by unanimous vote of mayor and council they were approved. On April 25, United For A Paws is meeting with the Cowichan Valley Regional District for bylaw changes. Wish us luck.
(Brittany Pickard-Brown is a Chemainus resident and a realtor with Re/Max Ocean Pointe).