Well, then....

On the front door of the SPCANS website, http://spcans.ca/, there are a couple of pretty significant items .... the second one being that the Animal Protection Act comes into force in Nova Scotia ... in other words that it has now been proclaimed by the Governor in Council ( aka our NS Lt Governor ) and so as of today the new Act ( http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/legc/PDFs/annual%20statutes/2008%20Fall/c033.pdf ) becomes law.
If it is not everything that it should be yet, the new Act allows for the possibility of improvement:

40 (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations
(a) prescribing, with respect to animals kept for sale, hire, exhibition,
research, or that are impounded, boarded or kept for breeding
(i) standards of design, construction and maintenance of facilities in
which the animals are kept,
(ii) the standard of care with which the animals are to be maintained;
(b) defining what are reasonable steps to find and notify an owner;
(c) determining reasonable expenses to be charged to the owner of an animal
taken into custody pursuant to this Act for transportation of the animal, food, care, shelter and veterinary medical treatment provided to the animal and for the enthanasia of an animal; (d) prescribing acceptable methods of euthanasia;
(e) prescribing societies, organizations, institutions or persons to which this
Act applies for the purpose of enforcing this Act and determining the extent to which this Act applies to the society, organization, institution or person;
(f) exempting research activities from the requirements of subsection 23(1) if
the research activities are being conducted pursuant to an audit program approved by the Canadian Council on Animal Care or an organization prescribed in the regulations;
(g) prescribing activities for the purpose of subsection 21(4) or 28(1);
(h) prescribing procedures and time periods for appeals to the Board;
(i) prescribing identification devices or methods for the purposes of subsection
26(1);
(j) prescribing further powers and duties of the Chief Inspector, the Provincial
Inspector or inspectors;
(k) prescribing minimum qualifications for persons appointed as the Chief
Inspector, the Provincial Inspector or inspectors;
(l) prescribing procedures respecting appeals to the Board;
(m) defining or prescribing unacceptable animal practices, modifications or
mutilations;
(n) prescribing activities that are deemed to cause animals to be in distress;
(o) prescribing or adopting acceptable codes of practice respecting animals;
(p) respecting the licensing of animal care facilities and standards for such
facilities;
(q) prescribing fees or ranges of fees for appeals;
(r) prescribing fees for the purpose of this Act;
(s) defining any word or expression used but not defined in this Act;
(t) further defining any word or expression defined in this Act;
(u) the Governor in Council considers necessary or advisable to carry out
effectively the intent and purpose of this Act.
As a sidebar to that, if anyone is wondering how to find out about future amendments, the way our legal process works is that amendments to existing legislation do have to be put before the House.
The same House with many of the same players who were quite prepared to let BSL be brought in the back door under the cover of a municipal housekeeping bill, Bill 136. As always, the way ahead for the animals will be paved with due diligence and feedback from voters.
Now on a normal day, that would be the number one item in my books, but there is another news note on their front door concerning a subject that is very very close to my heart.... Nova Scotia SPCA seeks to resolve cat dilemma in HRM with presentation to Council . You really want to read this presentation, click here to Download presentation
The society is proposing a much more financially viable and humane alternative to the staff report that I discussed in Flushing tax dollars down the drain ... the gist of which was the old scare tactic of "we can't afford to be humane so we better step up the old catching and killing of the cats"
The short version is that society proposal is for the society, with assistance from HRM, set up a low cost, high volume spay neuter clinic. Assistance I might add that represents a significantly smaller investment by HRM than the staff report figures.
Even better, included in the proposal is the suggestion that this could be the start of something that could spread around the province.
If you care about cats, you are already an advocate. If you live in HRM and can't make the meeting at two this afternoon, you can still let your councillor know what a great idea this is. Don't know how to reach them? http://www.halifax.ca/contact.html
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. - Samuel Adams