Ontario has become the first province in Canada to prohibit invasive medical research on dogs and cats.
Amendments to Ontario’s Animals for Research Act that passed a final vote in the legislature on Thursday will change the face of animal experimentation across the province and could trigger similar change elsewhere across Canada.
“Ontario has shown real leadership by becoming not only the first province in Canada to ban invasive experiments on dogs and cats, but likely the first jurisdiction in the globe,” said Camille Labchuk, a lawyer and executive director of animal rights organization Animal Justice.
“Most people no longer accept that dogs and cats should be subjected to painful, often deadly experiments in laboratories. We hope this groundbreaking legislation opens the door to broader protections in the future, such as for primates subjected to invasive research.”
Premier Doug Ford first unveiled the legislation following an IJB investigation into secret cardiac research on dogs inside St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, which involved inducing hours-long heart attacks in puppies.
The dog research program shut down shortly after the investigation was published last August.
A whistleblower who worked inside the St. Joseph’s lab and shared documents and details with IJB reporters said she was overwhelmed to learn that the legislation had passed this week.
“I’m just in shock,” said the whistleblower, who has since left the lab. “It doesn’t make it ok that we lost so many dogs when I was there, but at least their lives haven’t gone in vain.”
In a written statement Friday, St. Joseph’s said its Lawson Research Institute, where the dog research was conducted, “has always complied, and will continue to comply, with all regulatory, ethical and professional standards for research involving animals.”
While animal research is an important element in discovering treatments that save and improve lives, the statement reads, “whenever we can make scientific discoveries without involving animals – and wherever we can find alternatives – we do.”
Some researchers say the new ban could limit Ontario’s ability to make major medical breakthroughs.
Arthur Brown, chair of Western University’s Animal Care Committee, told the IJB that ethical, compassionate biomedical research involving animals leads to medical advances that save and improve millions of lives.
“Decisions about how this research is conducted should be guided by science and ethics,” he told the IJB. “Otherwise, we risk limiting our ability to understand, treat and cure the most urgent health problems facing society.”
While dogs and cats are the subject of the new legislation, regulations still to be written could extend protections to include a list of other “prescribed animals.”
A recent IJB investigation detailed the use of macaque monkeys inside a lab at York University. The monkeys are used for biomedical research examining brain systems controlling vision and actions of the eyes, head and hands.
Video footage recorded inside the lab between September 2024 and March 2025 by a whistleblower working with the U.S.-based group Last Chance for Animals showed macaques outfitted with metal head posts extending upward from the top of their heads, protected by acrylic caps.
Some macaques were recorded constantly pacing and swaying in their cages, scratching at the implants, and struggling to swallow in tight collar restraints.
York University said that the macaques in the footage are in its care and currently healthy. It did not address specific allegations of implant infections, injuries, and repeated escapes.
On Friday, protesters gathered at the university campus to demand that York University cease its research on the macaques and retire the primates to a sanctuary.
“I look into their eyes and I feel ashamed for what we have done to these creatures,” said Jaasmaan Singh, a York University music student, who was at the protest.
“It’s hard to believe that for four years I was thinking I’m making art, and just a few blocks away from here, you know these lives are suffering each and every moment,” he added.
Dr. Charu Chandraseka, founder of the Canadian Institute for Animal-Free Science, who reviewed published research on macaque from York University, said “the primate research at York is not groundbreaking medical research poised to deliver an imminent cure.”
York’s macaque research is focused on areas of neuroscience which are already extensively studied worldwide in consenting human participants using non-invasive imaging, she said.
“Caged monkeys tearing at head implants and drinking their urine should not be defended as the acceptable cost of profound distress in one of our closest relatives,” she added.
York University deputy spokesperson Yanni Dagonas said in a written statement Friday that the research conducted with its macaques is “critical” to helping create “next generation technologies” for treating neurological conditions including autism spectrum disorder, stroke, dementia and depression.
“We recognize that some research topics and methods are debated,” the statement reads. “However, any suggestion that this research is unnecessary is without merit.
“York avoids the use of animals in research unless there are no other alternatives”, the statement reads.
- IJB Gets Action: Ontario bans testing on dogs and cats as activists protest York University’s primate research - 15 May 2026
- At York University’s primate lab, allegations of bruises, bloody wounds and escapes - 30 April 2026
- Behind the Reporting: Is your hospital in good financial health? - 25 March 2026
