Federal Health Minister Mark Holland’s Ajax office has gone to the dogs.
Or at least that was the plan on Wednesday afternoon when rescued golden retrievers and their owners gathered outside to tell Holland to “bark off.”
The doggie demonstration was part of Golden Rescue’s rally aimed at obtaining a change to a ban imposed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) which prohibits dog rescue imports from 100-plus countries due to concerns about the high risk of rabies.
“The issue is that the CFIA is not allowing dogs to come in from 100-plus countries,” said Viive Tamm, co-chair of the Golden Rescue Board.
“And they’re saying they’re worried about bringing rabies into Canada. Well, rabies is 100% preventable and because of this ban, thousands and thousands of dogs are suffering needlessly and dying,” she added. “We safely brought in 1,500 goldens from Turkey and Egypt (for five years before the 2022 ban) and they all have their rabies vaccine. And we absolutely agree with having stronger protocols in process (and) we can continue to do the good work that we’re doing.”
The CFIA “ban on all commercial dogs, imported from countries considered high-risk for rabies,” came into effect on Sept. 28, 2022, according to the agency’s website.
“We have sent hundreds and hundreds of letters to Mark Holland, and we haven’t gotten one single response,” said Tamm.
The Toronto Sun reached out to federal officials for comment.