Criminal Code

Marginal note:Causing damage or injury

• 446 (1) Every one commits an offence who

  • (a) by wilful neglect causes damage or injury to animals or birds while they are being driven or conveyed; or

  • (b) being the owner or the person having the custody or control of a domestic animal or a bird or an animal or a bird wild by nature that is in captivity, abandons it in distress or wilfully neglects or fails to provide suitable and adequate food, water, shelter and care for it.

• Marginal note:Punishment

  (2) Every one who commits an offence under subsection (1) is guilty of

  • (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years; or

  • (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months or to both.

• Marginal note:Failure to exercise reasonable care as evidence

  (3) For the purposes of proceedings under paragraph (1)(a), evidence that a person failed to exercise reasonable care or supervision of an animal or a bird thereby causing it damage or injury is, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, proof that the damage or injury was caused by wilful neglect.