![\"Justice\"](\"https:\/\/test.weneedalaw.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Justice.jpg\")
Last month Vancouver, British Columbia resident Brian Whitlock was charged under the Criminal Code with wilfully causing suffering to an animal.<\/a> Mr. Whitlock faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a lifetime ban on owning animals and a $75,000 fine.<\/p>\nIt is alleged that in July of 2012 Whitlock left his German shepherd for dead in a dumpster in an upscale area of Vancouver. The shepherd was found after passersby heard its cries. It was so malnourished and unresponsive that it died the next day. In the days following, the BCSPCA held a vigil in the shepherd\u2019s honour and more than $70,000 was donated in an online campaign to raise money for the investigation. In an interview<\/a>, Lorrie Chortyk of the BCSPCA said, \u201cWe deal with thousands of cases every year and deal with heartbreaking cases every day, but I think this particular case – the image of this dog, critically ill, lying in a dumpster – really touched people\u2019s hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this is not the only case of animal cruelty which has received national attention. It was only <\/span>a short time ago that Canadians learned of the controversial cull by Robert Fawcett<\/a> in Whistler, BC. <\/span>This case also received widespread media attention and was dutifully investigated by the British Columbia SPCA and the RCMP. Canadians were infuriated that 56 sled dogs were killed in such inhumane fashion: some were shot at point blank range while others had their throats slit before being dumped into a mass grave. The media reported nationwide outrage. Mr. Fawcett received three years probation for killing the sled dogs after an intense investigation that included exhuming the dogs over a year after they were killed.<\/p>\n These two cases are examples of despicable behaviour, of human barbarity toward defenceless animals. The stories received proper attention and the public\u2019s reaction was commensurate with the act. <\/span><\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but wonder what the reaction would be by Canadians to the news that humans were killed in a similar manner and we were treated to images of new-born babies left to die in stainless steel pans on tables in private, profit generating clinics funded with taxpayer dollars. <\/span>How would they take this news? Would it touch their hearts?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The appalling fact is that it is happening, and it\u2019s only because of Canada\u2019s refusal to wake up from our infatuation with so-called \u201creproductive rights\u201d and decades-old, pro-choice rhetoric that this story hasn\u2019t appeared on the front pages in similar fashion to the sled dogs with their throats slit. It would, of course, lead to uncomfortable questions: Why should a tiny baby mewling on a hospital bed be entitled to any more rights than he or she did mere inches away in utero? How far has the cognitive dissonance between what we know about embryology and what we believe about \u201cabortion rights\u201d pushed us when we can straight-facedly call a complication of a pregnancy termination \u201clive birth\u201d?<\/p>\n