Menaces to Society: A Posthhumanist Rethinking of Canine Capital Punishment in Ontario
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/alr2833Abstract
This article presents a critical analysis of Ontario’s Dog Owners’ Liability Act (DOLA), focusing on its ethical and legal shortcomings. First, it highlights that DOLA permits courts to order the destruction of dogs deemed dangerous, a practice compared to capital punishment — which is something that has been abolished for humans in Canada. Second, it contends that dogs are often punished for actions that stem from human negligence, lack of training, or provocation, yet receive no legal representation or procedural fairness. Third, the critique underscores the speciesism inherent in the law, which treats dogs as property rather than as sentient beings. Finally, it proposes reform through alternatives such as provincially funded rehabilitation sanctuaries, aiming to promote a more compassionate and just legal framework.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
For Editions following and including Volume 61 No. 1, the following applies.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
For Editions prior to Volume 61 No. 1, the following applies.
Author(s) retain original copyright in the substantive content of the titled work, subject to the following rights that are granted indefinitely:
- Author(s) grant the Alberta Law Review permission to produce, publish, disseminate, and distribute the titled work in electronic format to online database services, including, but not limited to: LexisNexis, QuickLaw, HeinOnline, and EBSCO;
- Author(s) grant the Alberta Law Review permission to post the titled work on the Alberta Law Review website and/or related websites.
- Author(s) agree that the titled work may be used for educational or instructional purposes and/or in educational or instructional materials. The author(s) acknowledge that the titled work is subject to other such "fair dealing" provisions and applicable legislation.
- Author(s) grant a limited license to those accessing the titled work from an electronic database or an Alberta Law Review website to download the titled work onto their computer and to print a copy for their own personal, non-commercial use, subject to proper attribution.
To use the journal's content elsewhere, permission must be obtained from the author(s) and the Alberta Law Review.