Humane Treatment of Farmed Animals

Project Report | Jun 5, 2018
Half a million farm animals died in barn fires

By Barbara Cartwright | CEO

Almost half a million farm animals died in barn fires in Canada between January 2015 and November 2017. Many of these awful deaths could have been avoided with simple changes to farm building design and standards.

Canada needs better standards for the housing of farm animals, and now is the time to make the needed changes as the National Research Council (NRC) is currently updating the National Farm Building Code.

However, the NRC has no plans to include protection from fire for animals in the Farm Code update. In fact, the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, which is the NRC subcommittee working on this issue, has taken the position that animal protection is not an objective of the revised Farm Building Code.

How can it be justified to not take farm animals into account when working on a farm building code?

Experience has shown that, during a barn fire, it is very difficult and time consuming to evacuate animals from cages and stalls. Meanwhile, the response time of rural fire departments is substantially longer than that of their urban counterparts. Often, barns are already engulfed in flames when the fire department arrives. It is hard to fully comprehend the enormous scale of pain and desperation felt by farm animals as they struggle in vain to escape the burning flames and smoke. What we do know, however, is that in the case of most barn fires simple fire prevention methods could spare thousands of animals from this suffering.

Canada needs better standards for the housing of farm animals, and now is the time to make the needed changes.

We hope we can count on you. Your dedication to animal welfare makes the work we do possible.

Your donation allows us to fight for the highest standards of animal welfare on Canadian farms.

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Learn more about how to support this work

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Mar 8, 2018
Transportation of Farm Animals must be humane

By Derek Rumboldt-deLouche | Director, Resource Development and Member Services

We have a lot to accomplish together in 2018, but I know compassionate people like you are ready to fight for what’s right. Your dedication to animal welfare makes the work we do possible.

In 2018 we have a busy year that promises a start to significant change for Canada’s farm animals including how they are transported.

It was over one year ago on February 15^th, 2017 that the public comment period closed on Canada's woefully out-of-date animal transportation regulations. We are still waiting for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to release the updated regulations, which have been in the works for more than ten years. To allow the public to show its support we have started a letter writing campaign. You can remind your MP that this issue is important to you, that animal welfare matters and that we need strong transportation regulations to protect animals from pain, suffering and death by visiting the link provided in this report.

While we wait for the update to the regulations to be released we continue our support of the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) work to establish a new transportation code affecting all farmed animals. The difference between the federal government’s regulations and the NFACC code of practice is that the code of practice will be industry based and responds to consumer pressure. As the only animal welfare group at the table we can press for the highest standards of animal care.

These codes are informed by an impartial Scientists Committee so that code recommendations are linked with science. It is widely accepted that animal welfare codes, guidelines, standards or legislation should take advantage of the best available knowledge. This independent group is nearing the completion of their ground breaking report on the needs of animals in transportation that will form the development of the NFACC code.

As well this year we will be working with NFACC on the development of first time codes for goats and fish and updating the dairy code which promotes appropriate housing and husbandry as essential for the health and well being of the almost 1 million dairy cattle in Canada.

Thank you for being such a wonderful ally in the fight to ensure better conditions for all Canada’s farm animals, together we can make great strides to create a more humane Canada in 2018.

Your donation allows us to fight for the highest standards of animal welfare on Canadian farms.

Links:

Add your voice to call to release new transportation regulations

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Dec 28, 2017
A chance to improve industry practice in 2018!

By Derek Rumboldt-deLouche | Director, Resource Development and Member Services

In Canada each year, approximately 700 million farm animals are transported from farm to auction or slaughter. Approximately 1.6 million of these animals, mostly chickens, are found dead on arrival. Many more arrive sick or injured following their long, grueling journeys and need to be euthanized. Transportation is the most alien and stressful experience that a farm animal will have in its lifetime. The longer and harder this experience is, the more risk there is of stress-induced illness, injury and death. These animals deserve more dignity and care – just because they are headed to slaughter does not mean we should allow them to suffer while they are still alive.

One of the major hurdles that we face is that in December 2016, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) released Canada's new draft transport regulations. After more than 10 years of pushing for an overhaul of our inadequate and irresponsible regulations, CFHS is disappointed to report that the proposed changes don't go nearly far enough. We are also dissapointed that it has been 10 months since the public comment period ended and we still have not seen the final proposed regulation.

CFHS is the founding national animal welfare organization of the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC), which coordinates a national approach to advance farm animal welfare through development of species specific Codes of Practice for on farm care and handling.

In 2018, in addition to work on current codes of practice, NFACC will also convene the Code Development Committee to develop a revised Transportation Code as the current code is out of date and needs to align with current animal welfare science.

The work of NFACC promises the opportunity to ensure that industry will have standards stricter than the CFIA regulations that align with current animal welfare science.

CFHS provides subject experts who sit as CFHS Representatives during deliberations with stakeholders throughout the process and these experts will be tasked with ensuring new requirements and recommended best practices are measurably closer to the Five Freedoms.

This work will ensure strong animal welfare expertise is brought to the development of science-informed standards to advance a transportation system that better meets the needs of animals. The initiative will influence the lives of millions of animals annually, now and into the future.

Thank you for your past support and we hope we can continue to count on you as we undertake this process.

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