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Is it illegal to drown pets? [ON] (self.legaladvice)

Inkbot92 が 投稿

I need help resolving an argument I'm having with my parents.

When I was a kid I had two pet guinea pigs, Oreo and Ginger. When Ginger died of natural causes, my parents' reaction was to drown Oreo that night. I didn't know until it was too late so I couldn't stop them. Their logic was that guinea pigs are miserable if they don't have a friend. I still say that drowning is a particularly nasty and inhumane way to go and if they wanted what was best for Oreo they could have taken her to the vet to be euthanised (or just not KILL her).

Was what they did illegal? If so, how serious of a crime would it have been? It's far too long ago to prosecute (happened over 10 years ago), but it would help prove to them that what they did wasn't the "right" choice (they use this as an example of me overreacting).

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[–]High_In_The_Instep 114ポイント115ポイント  (1子コメント)

Might want to ask mom and dad what to do with the surviving spouse when one of them dies.

[–]blackbirdsongs 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

I now want this update more than the painted house.

[–]chrismichaels3000 42ポイント43ポイント  (2子コメント)

Yes. In Ontario it is illegal to cause or permit distress to an animal.

[–]Inkbot92[S] 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thank you! This helps :)

[–]Lehk 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

it looks like most of that law was passed in steps since 2002
there are references to 93 an 97 versions too, so depending on when this happened it may or may not have been a crime.

[–]53045248437532743874Quality Contributor 40ポイント41ポイント  (4子コメント)

WTF?

No you cannot drown pets. Not in any civilized country.

But if a decade later you're going to try to use this as ammo against them...not sure what your end game is here. Not legal advice, but people who drown pets are going to do what, exactly, ten years later when you confront them about it?

[–]Inkbot92[S] 23ポイント24ポイント  (3子コメント)

I'm trying to convince them that their current views of how to treat animals aren't the norm. Also to prove to myself that I wasn't the unreasonable one in the situation.

[–]archangel087 22ポイント23ポイント  (1子コメント)

You aren't going to convince them of squat. Good luck Op, and don't ask them to pet sit when you get older.

[–]mcgillycuddy412 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

If they have pets and mistreat them, you should call the police on them. They'll let them know which side of the argument they're sitting on.

[–]lawnerdcanada 9ポイント10ポイント  (1子コメント)

IANAL.

There's s. 445 (" Every one commits an offence who, wilfully and without lawful excuse, kills, maims, wounds, poisons or injures dogs, birds or animals that are not cattle and are kept for a lawful purpose...") and s. 445.1 ("Every one commits an offence who wilfully causes or, being the owner, wilfully permits to be caused unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal or a bird...)".

You'd have to look at the case law, though. Being the pet's owner, your parents may have had a "lawful excuse" in the meaning of the law, and it's doubtful that drowning is sufficient to constitute "unnecessary suffering". You're right that they cannot be prosecuted now, because until this amendment in 2008, those were summary conviction offences (punishable by a maximum of six months' imprisonment), so the statute of limitations has long since run. They are now hybrid offences (can be prosecuted either on summary conviction or by way of indicment), which have no statute of limitations. The maximum punishment is now 18 months on summary conviction or 5 years if prosecuted by indictment.

edit: And there may be an applicable provincial offence statute as well.

[–]Inkbot92[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thank you! This is extremely informative. I appreciate the time you took to type it out.

[–]gnopgnip 8ポイント9ポイント  (5子コメント)

I have older family that grew up on a farm and they would consider it normal to drown kittens instead of getting them all fixed and given to new people. Sterilizing pets or euthanizing them was unheard of. Animal shelters were very rare outside of major cities. The rational is that it is less cruel to drown the animals than it is to let them starve and die of depression. There are 5-10 cats and dogs born for every person. The best thing to do is take the animal to an animal shelter or cavy shelter but that was probably not an option a long time ago.

[–]Inkbot92[S] 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

It sounds like my parents share a similar view to your older relatives. I get why they think the way they do, but we lived in a well populated suburb and this happened in ~2004. It wasn't a different era, we weren't on a farm, and my parents were in their thirties at the time, not exactly a different generation.

[–]BathtubApplesauce 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

This might be a sensitive question, but are they from a different culture?

[–]Inkbot92[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

They're both upper class white canadians. Both raised in suburbs on the east coast. Neither has any attachment to farming or rural culture.

[–]Leprophobia 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

But did they ever give one to their child to be a pet only to later drown it and wonder why the kid was "overreacting"?

[–]castlecrasher2 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

That wouldn't surprise me, personally, knowing the kind of person who drowns animals out of necessity (or at least perceived necessity).

[–]Leprophobia 18ポイント19ポイント  (7子コメント)

Your parents sound like horrible people. I doubt you can reason with anyone who is willing to defend drowning their 10-year-old's pet guinea pig, and further bring that up as an example of said child "overreacting. Are your parents sociopaths?!

[–]PinkVortex 7ポイント8ポイント  (0子コメント)

Sure sounds like they are. Drowning their child's pet... smh. OP, don't believe for a second that you're overreacting or too sensitive.

[–]Inkbot92[S] -2ポイント-1ポイント  (5子コメント)

I won't defend their behaviour too much, but the way they treat humans is very different than the way they treat animals. They don't understand empathy for anything that isn't a person.

[–]PinkVortex 6ポイント7ポイント  (4子コメント)

Does anyone else in your family know they did this? And if so, what did they say about it? I find it really odd that they thought drowning the surviving guinea pig was the right thing to do

[–]castlecrasher2 0ポイント1ポイント  (3子コメント)

I've heard of farmers drowning kittens when they had too many cats. Sounds like it could be an extension of that?

[–]PinkVortex 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

You mean like what gnopgnip said? I understand -that- logic. It's kinda like how they have to kill off some koalas so the whole species doesn't die off from lack of food.

But this situation is totally different. They killed the guinea pig so it wouldn't be lonely... they could have just gotten another to be its new buddy, right?

[–]WarKittyKat 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

My guess is they didn't want to be stuck in an endless cycle of getting a new guinea pig.

[–]CaptainSnacks 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I mean, I've seen my grandpa take puppies for 'the long walk" when he had too many and the dog kept getting preggo. But I really don't think that's inhumane (although I don't support it), because a .38 in the skull is a lot different than drowning the poor things-quicker, more than likely painless and instant.

[–]machinal 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

My gut tells me they were tired of having guinea pigs in the house.

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Original Post:

Author: /u/Inkbot92

Is it illegal to drown pets? [ON]

I need help resolving an argument I'm having with my parents.

When I was a kid I had two pet guinea pigs, Oreo and Ginger. When Ginger died of natural causes, my parents' reaction was to drown Oreo that night. I didn't know until it was too late so I couldn't stop them. Their logic was that guinea pigs are miserable if they don't have a friend. I still say that drowning is a particularly nasty and inhumane way to go and if they wanted what was best for Oreo they could have taken her to the vet to be euthanised (or just not KILL her).

Was what they did illegal? If so, how serious of a crime would it have been? It's far too long ago to prosecute (happened over 10 years ago), but it would help prove to them that what they did wasn't the "right" choice.