Humane Canada has started a letter writing campaign to expand Bill C-16 to address the possession and distribution of online animal abuse content.

Bill C-16 was put forward by the Minister of Justice. The act introduces reforms to Canada’s Criminal Code and other pieces of legislation to protect victims of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, child sexual abuse, gender-based violence and other offences.

Kerri Thomson, Manager of Justice and Legislative Affairs for Humane Canada, says that while Canada has laws against animal abuse, there are some loopholes that the organization wants closed in Bill C-16.

“Our letter writing campaign is just a reminder that this legislation to include animals is important, specifically the animal sexual abuse images, which have not been criminalized despite bestiality being a Criminal Code offence. The actual sharing and distribution and creation is not illegal, so that’s a loophole that needs to be closed.”

Thomson adds that addressing online animal abuse content in the bill is important as it is linked to other forms of violence and abuse.

“It’s exploited the most, unfortunately, in a lot of child sexual abuse cases. It’s used as a grooming tool for children. We just want to remind the government with our letter writing campaign that this is important to Canadians, that we recognize that animal abuse and violence among people go hand-in-hand.”

She says that along with videos and images depicting animal sexual abuse, media showing physical abuse toward animals has also become a growing concern that needs to be addressed.

“What we will be going for is to try to include animal torture images in that legislation as well, because there’s currently nothing in the Criminal Code that adequately addresses animal torture images being shared online, and it’s a growing problem.”

Police say a Winnipeg couple, sentenced to 12 years in prison for the torture and deaths of more than 90 animals, photographed and filmed being tortured or killed over the span of six months and then created an underground network where people would submit a video of themselves killing an animal to access the group. Those wanting to see Bill C-16 expanded can join the letter writing campaign by going to humanecanada.ca