Session A: An Examination of the Challenges and Limitations of the Legal Terrain for Animal Cruelty Officers

Too many animals experience cruelty and neglect, and the labour of front-line officers in animal protection makes it possible for some harmful situations to be remedied. In Ontario, this work is undertaken by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA), a network of nongovernmental organizations/charities. Research conducted by Coulter and Fitzgerald (2016, 2018) has revealed that the officers work under challenging conditions and within a highly constrained legal context. Officers make decisions on a daily basis whether to issue orders or lay charges based on what the laws allow and on their assessment about what is desirable, possible, and/or likely to succeed. In this presentation, I will explore how officers in a specific region negotiate the legal terrain as part of their daily labour. Building from semi-structured interviews with front-line officers in the OSPCA-affiliated humane societies in the Niagara Region, I will outline key findings and my preliminary analysis, focusing on the workers’ experiences and how they negotiate the legal requirements of their jobs. Coulter (2016a, 2016b) has argued that in order to make cruelty investigation work into more humane jobs, the working conditions need to be improved. Indeed, the troubling working conditions in combination with a lack of public funding and outdated legislation impact the workers, which, in turn, directly affect vulnerable animals. Therefore, I also aim to identify ways to strengthen cruelty investigation labour and policy to better meet the needs of animals, people, and our shared communities