Wandering the streets of Beaver Creek, seeking food and shelter are numerous, now-wild cats which long-time animal rights advocate Andrea Lemphers wants to see the RCMP take action on.

'Abandoning animals is an offence, simple as that,' the Whitehorse-area woman said in an interview this week.

'There's all kinds of things that can be done.'

The cats are believed to have become wild after a Beaver Creek woman moved out of her trailer earlier this fall, leaving the animals there.

Under the cruelty to animals section of the federal Criminal Code, it states that causing unnecessary suffering is an offence. It lists part of unnecessary suffering as '...being the owner or the person having the custody or control of a domestic animal or bird or an animal or bird wild by nature that is in captivity, abandons it in distress or willfully neglects or fails to provide suitable and adequate food, water, shelter and care for it.'

For RCMP in the Yukon though, the issue becomes difficult to investigate because the cats aren't posing a health or safety risk and aren't being cruelly treated, explained Brigitte Parker, the RCMP M-division's spokeswoman.

In other jurisdictions though, Lemphers said, police have investigated and pressed charges in similar cases.

She recalled the case of more than 50 dogs being shot near Dawson City last spring, arguing charges should have been pressed then, but weren't.

If the RCMP in the Yukon are unsure of their jurisdiction, she suggested, they could look at what police in other regions of the country have done to deal with such situations.

As part of their investigation, local police could have a veterinarian examine the cats to determine if there's been suffering, she said.

The Yukon government has announced plans to review territorial legislation on the treatment of animals. However, that has left Lemphers wondering how she can trust the government to follow through on finishing the job after she received a letter in September signed by Community Services Minister Glenn Hart and Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang stating their intentions for a review.

'Again, it's the same old excuse,' she said.

The letter notes the territorial government deals with animal legislation under the Animal Protection Act, Animal Health Act, the Dog Act, the Highways Act and the Pounds Act.

The Criminal Code as well as municipal bylaws also deal with the care and control of animals, it noted.

Meetings were held with local humane societies with legislation from Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Alaska being reviewed.

'This work is now underway. We are also currently doing an interdepartmental review of Yukon's legislation,' the letter read.

It then went on to state the government was planning to hire a consulting firm to make recommendations on improving the Yukon's legislation and enforcement.

'Our goal is to support the work of humane societies in the territory and to ensure the humane treatment of domestic animals by working with stakeholders to review and modernize legislation pertaining to domestic animal control and protection,' it states.

In an interview earlier this week, Hart confirmed other regions are being looked at, with consultations expected to be finished early in 2007.

He noted the government is interested is issues around enforcement, collecting evidence and getting information to the RCMP.

Recommendations could end up changing regulations rather than legislation, with a possibility of some interim initiatives until something is officially tabled in the legislature.

'I think it's important to ensure the safety of animals,' Hart said, adding territorial legislation would not trump federal laws.

'We're anxious to get something moving on this,' he said.

However, Liberal justice critic Don Inverarity suggested looking at other regions' legislation is 'an easy out' for the government.

The territory has a number of different issues from other areas. Not a lot of areas deal with dog mushing except in the North, he pointed out as an example.

While looking at the N.W.T., for example, might be useful, the MLA questioned whether there would be an advantage to investigating what places like Toronto do.

'I'd like to see a made-in-Yukon solution,' he said, after stating that ideally, he envisions a larger bill addressing all the issues around animal protection coming forward in the spring.

'I think it's important we protect (animals). It's not like they can stand up in the house and complain themselves, so we have to do it for them,' he said.

With files from Julia Skikavich.