This month, Ontario’s newly minted animal protection legislation came into effect, creating more government oversight and a dedicated team to protect pets and other animals from abuse.

On the law’s first day, Maggie, our dog, lounged in her bed. I was nearby, thinking about wildlife: not many weeks before, the same government changed another law — removing protections to stop wild animals from vanishing altogether.

The contrast is striking. Our fondness for pets is often explained as an artefact of our innate fascination with all non-human life: our early ancestors, so the theory goes, succeeded because they paid attention to the creatures they hunted and to those that hunted them. A connection to animals is part of who we are.

Yet the story of Ontario’s two laws illustrates a troubling shift: As our love of animals focuses more on pets, species in the wild are increasingly left behind — out of sight, out of mind, and, often, out of time.

Maggie and other pets are among the least in need of protection of any animals on the planet; more dogs and cats roam the Earth than any other carnivores. And while pets in North America have more than doubled their population to more than 400 million in the last 50 years, wild animal numbers have plummeted. A million wild species now face extinction, according to a recent UN report. Human activity is behind it.

Ending the neglect and torture of cats, dogs and other creatures is a priority. The government is right to step in, especially after the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recently announced it was stepping away.

Yet in the recent changes to Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, the province removed safeguards for creatures in the wild. Developers can now pay to avoid protecting species-at-risk habitat and species are now less protected if they’re found elsewhere in the world.

Most Ontario animal lovers seemed not to notice or care. We’re not alone: in November, U.S. Republicans and Democrats came together to unanimously support a new Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, even as President Donald Trump recently introduced new rules to substantially weaken the nation’s Endangered Species Act.

The pets-versus-wildlife disconnect is growing. In 2014, Americans spent 45 times more on pet care, pet food, and pet gear ($58 billion; it’s $75 billion today) than the cost of all U.S. federal and state programs to save almost 1,500 species facing extinction.

What’s more, our pet obsession is a big part of the conservation crisis. Cats, estimated to kill up to 4 billion North American birds a year, are the chief culprit in 63 recent extinctions, say scientists. Dogs are the main cause in 11.

The loss of birds, reptiles and tropical fish trapped for the pet industry has taken a serious toll, while released and escaped pets established as invasive species are wreaking ecological havoc all over the world.

Most pet owners, of course, have no idea. They love animals, but many don’t make the link. Some scientists believe the pace of species loss — up to 1,000 times the natural rate — could soon derail the natural systems that keep the planet, and us, alive. In October, Canada and almost 200 other signatories to the UN Convention on Biodiversity will meet in China to decide next steps to avert what is among the world’s worst environmental calamities.

Pet people are right to celebrate Ontario’s new law tackling abuse, but we need to just as loudly rebuke legal changes that defang our endangered species rules. As much as we love our four-legged companions at home, we may need their wild brethren more. Not just for the good of the planet, but for the love of animals.

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