Bill 89 explained in plain English
OSPCA Fairness Act, 2013
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The OSPCA Fairness Act, 2013, amends the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to ensure owners are not responsible for costs of seized animals and to establish rules for animal return after owner charges.
This bill amends the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. It changes who is responsible for the costs of food, care, and treatment for animals that are seized by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) or an affiliated society. It also sets out rules for returning animals to their owners when the owner has been charged with an animal welfare offence.
- Removes the owner's or custodian's responsibility to pay for food, care, or treatment provided by the OSPCA or an affiliated society to an animal.
- Establishes rules for returning an animal to its owner or custodian if the owner has been charged with an animal welfare offence and the animal was taken into custody by the OSPCA or an affiliated society.
- Owners and custodians of animals seized by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) or an affiliated society.
- The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) and its affiliated societies.
- Owners or custodians are no longer required to pay for food, care, or treatment provided to their animals by the OSPCA or an affiliated society (Section 15 of the amended Act).
- The OSPCA or affiliated society must make reasonable efforts to return an animal to its owner or custodian immediately if the owner is no longer charged, acquitted, or convicted of an animal welfare offence, unless a judge orders forfeiture (Section 15.0.1 of the amended Act).
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent. (Section 2)
- The bill does not specify what constitutes 'reasonable efforts' for returning an animal to its owner or custodian.
- The bill does not detail the process or criteria a judge would use to order forfeiture of an animal.
- The bill does not explicitly state what happens if an owner or custodian cannot be located when the OSPCA or an affiliated society is required to return an animal, beyond the previous provision allowing disposal if the owner could not be found (which is repealed).
Changes provisions related to costs for animal care and the return of animals to owners who have faced animal welfare charges.
Source: Section 15 and new Section 15.0.1
Removes the existing provision that allowed the OSPCA to charge owners for food, care, or treatment and to sell or dispose of an animal if the owner refused to pay or could not be found.
Source: Section 1
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced