Criminal Code amendments prohibiting animal fighting
Law & Regulation
In Effect
June 21, 2019
Summary
On 21 June 2019, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (bestiality and animal fighting), S.C. 2019, c. 17 — introduced as Bill C-84 by Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould on 18 October 2018 — received Royal Assent and came into force immediately. The Act amended sections 445.1 and 447 of the Criminal Code to expand and strengthen federal offences related to animal fighting. Under the amended section 445.1(1)(b), the offence previously covering “encouraging, aiding or assisting at the fighting or baiting of animals or birds” was broadened to prohibit promoting, arranging, assisting at, taking part in, or receiving money for the fighting or baiting of animals or birds. New section 445.1(1)(b.1) created explicit offences for preparatory activities — breeding, training, or transporting an animal or bird for the purpose of having it fight another animal or bird. Section 447(1) was amended so that the offence formerly limited to building, making, maintaining, or keeping a “cockpit” (a space kept for cockfighting) now applies to any arena for animal fighting on premises owned or occupied by a person. Penalties under section 447(2) include, on indictment, imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or on summary conviction, a fine of not more than CAD 10,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than two years less a day. The Department of Justice Canada described the amendments as intended to “expand the existing provisions in order to protect all animals and capture all activities related to animal fighting.” The Act also defined bestiality (responding to a 2016 Supreme Court of Canada gap identified in R. v. D.L.W.) alongside the animal fighting amendments, both within the same legislative vehicle. No new enforcement agency was created; investigation and prosecution operate within the existing criminal law framework.
Background Context
Before S.C. 2019, c. 17, the Criminal Code contained animal cruelty offences including provisions on cockfighting and on encouraging, aiding, or assisting at the fighting or baiting of animals or birds, but these were narrower in scope. The arena-related offence in section 447 referred specifically to a “cockpit” defined as a space for cockfighting rather than a general animal fighting arena. The Department of Justice identified gaps in coverage: existing provisions did not expressly cover promoting, arranging, profiting from, breeding, training, or transporting animals specifically for fighting purposes. Earlier attempts to amend federal animal cruelty provisions — including private members’ bills C-592 and C-610 and previous government bills — had sought broader reform but did not pass. Bill C-84 adopted a targeted approach, focusing on specific expansions of animal fighting offences and a definition of bestiality rather than comprehensive cruelty reform. The June 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. D.L.W. — finding that existing bestiality offences required penetration because the term was undefined — provided the immediate catalyst for Bill C-84, with animal fighting provisions bundled in the same instrument. Humane Canada publicly supported the bill. Animal Justice had previously advocated for broader animal cruelty reform through private members’ bills.
System Impact
Direction
Reduces Exploitation
Type
Alters Legal Basis
Significance
Moderate
S.C. 2019, c. 17 received Royal Assent on 21 June 2019 with immediate effect. The amended sections 445.1 and 447 of the Criminal Code came into force without a transitional period. Investigation and enforcement are carried out by municipal police, provincial police forces, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; prosecution is conducted by Crown prosecutors under the amended Criminal Code provisions. No specific post-2019 prosecutions relying on the new preparatory-activity or promotional offence language were identified in sources consulted. The consolidated Criminal Code on the Justice Laws Website confirms sections 445.1 and 447 as amended by 2019, c. 17 as current law; no subsequent federal legislation has repealed or materially modified the animal fighting provisions.
Anticipated Effects
If the expanded offences are systematically applied by law enforcement and prosecutors, organisers, promoters, financial participants, breeders, trainers, transporters, and arena operators involved in animal fighting would all face criminal liability, increasing legal risk exposure across the full operational chain of organised animal fighting.
If the prohibition on any “arena for animal fighting” — extending the former cockpit-specific offence — is enforced, physical venues used for animal fighting regardless of species would be subject to criminal prosecution, removing the prior limitation to cockfighting-specific infrastructure.
Whether the 2019 amendments have produced a measurable reduction in the scale or frequency of organised animal fighting in Canada is not established in available sources; any scale change remains conditional on enforcement practice.
Significance Rationale
Assigned Reduces Exploitation (impact direction) because the amendments criminalise additional categories of conduct across the animal fighting system — promoting, arranging, receiving money for fights, breeding animals for fighting, training animals for fighting, transporting animals for fighting, and maintaining any fighting arena. If implemented and enforced as written, the expanded offences contract the legal operational space for organised animal fighting by increasing criminal liability at multiple stages of the activity.
Assigned Alters Legal Basis (impact type) because the primary mechanism is the statutory broadening of what is legally prohibited: existing offences are expanded in scope and new offence descriptions are created for preparatory activities and for arena maintenance. This changes what is legally impermissible under the Criminal Code rather than modifying conditions within a continuing permitted system.
Assigned Moderate significance because the amendments apply nationwide across Canada but target a specific and limited subset of animal exploitation — organised animal fighting and its supporting infrastructure. The directly affected animal population is confined to those used in fighting contexts; the scale of organised animal fighting is small relative to other exploitation systems documented in SE. No quantified data on the prevalence of animal fighting operations or on changes in enforcement rates following the 2019 amendments are documented in sources consulted.
The duration and persistence of any scale change in organised animal fighting attributable to these amendments is not established in available sources.
Within The System
Key Actors
Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould introduced Bill C-84 on 18 October 2018; Parliament enacted it as S.C. 2019, c. 17 on 21 June 2019. The Department of Justice Canada drafted the bill and issued official backgrounders explaining the objectives. Humane Canada publicly supported the bill. Police services and Crown prosecutors are the enforcement actors under the amended Criminal Code provisions. Animal Justice had previously advocated for broader animal cruelty reform through which the animal fighting gap was identified.
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