New animal welfare charity guidelines support traditional SPCAs.

• Author: Battle, Tim
• Position: Feature: Charity Law

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After a consultation period, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) issued new guidelines for animal welfare charities in August 2011. These new guidelines help to clarify which animal welfare activities meet the established definition of charity, and also help to illustrate what Canadian society generally deems as charitable. The guidelines are contained in a document called "Promotion of Animal Welfare and Charitable Registration", Reference # CG-011 and can be found on the CRA website at: www.cra-arcgc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/plcy/cgd/nmlwlfr-eng.html.

While the document is new, the guidelines generally re-inforce traditional notions of charity. The guideline document doesn't change the rules, but outlines the types of animal welfare activities that meet the charitable standard and explains how the rules came about.

Benefitting the Public Good

A number of criteria need to be met for an organization to qualify as a charity. One criterion is that there must be a benefit to the public good. Traditionally, animal welfare charities meet this because it is generally acknowledged that they "promote morality and check man's innate tendency to cruelty and are thus of benefit to humanity." (1) In other words, even though they don't provide direct service to segments of the (human) public, it is recognized that the promotion of kindness to animals reflects well on a compassionate society. This thought is captured by a quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

This widely-held recognition of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCAs; sometimes known as Humane Societies) reflects both the historical context and the current reality. While many SPCAs in the country were first established with the goals of helping both animals and vulnerable people, most now work exclusively on behalf of animals through such means as law enforcement and humane education programs. The connections between kindness to animals and respect for other people is woven into the fabric of humane education, which is often seen as encouraging compassion for animals, people and the earth we share. Today, websites such as everylivingthing.ca demonstrate this interconnectedness of nature and the value of compassion for every living thing.

Indeed, this sentiment reaches far back into Canadian history, as is demonstrated in the violence-prevention work of...