Farm Animal Welfare

Nearly half a billion animals are bred, reared, transported and slaughtered in Canada every year.  All these animals, without exception, are exposed to stress and the risk of pain, injury or suffering before finally dying to provide the public with meat, eggs and meat by-products.  Many animals are slaughtered in slaughter houses or packing plants that are not subject to any regulation which would require these animals to be rendered unconscious by an approved humane method before being shackled, hoisted, bled and scalded.

Many of these animals are placed in trucks and transported to stockyards, where they are unloaded, held for sale, reloaded and trucked to their next, and generally final, destination.  This procedure undoubtedly causes these animals to suffer to a greater or lesser degree.  Conditions and handling practices in the stockyard and sales barns vary greatly, but the danger of injury or suffering due either to poor layout or rough handling is present in all of them.

The majority of the animals and birds that are reared for human consumption are required to live their relatively short lives in conditions which deprive the animal of any opportunity for natural behaviour.

Millions of egg laying poultry spend their entire lives in small, cramped wire cages, unable to walk, scratch, nest, roost or otherwise perform any of the behaviours the birds would naturally perform given the opportunity.

Hundreds of thousands of calves are confined to narrow crates for their entire, short lives, unable even to turn around.  They are also deprived of any exercise.  To make matters worse, the unfortunate animals are deprived of a normal diet.  Instead, they are fed only milk, with no roughage and no iron, and are given antibiotics t o keep them alive for an average of 13 to 14 weeks.  The animals are then slaughtered to produce "white veal".

Broiler chickens are reared in intensive conditions and are then manually picked up, one by one, and crated for transportation to the poultry packing plant.  Thousands of birds are routinely injured in the process.

Sows are either crated or tethered.  Even sheep are now being kept in semi-intensive conditions.

All  these activities are the result of economic forces.  The market place demands cheap food -- intensive systems are the result.  The Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada has over the years consistently tried to address these problems in an effective but responsible way.

In 1976 the Trustees of the Foundation decided to try to attract the attention of all Canadians who have an interest in rearing animals for human consumption.  A national conference was organized which attracted representatives from Federal and Provincial governments, agricultural colleges, schools of veterinary medicine, veterinarians, agriculturalists, farmers' groups, consumer organizations and humane societies.  After two years of organization and planning, the Livestock Intensive Methods of Production (LIMP) conference was held in Ottawa on December 6-7, 1978.

The LIMP conference was well attended and was considered a success.  The main result of the of conference was an agreement, by all groups and authorities represented to work together to produce voluntary Codes of Practice which would codify the rearing practices of all major classes of livestock.

It was the general agreement of the conference that the committees necessary to produce these Codes should be organized and coordinated by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS).  the Foundation has supported this work by grants to the CFHS.

In 1990 there are now voluntary Codes of Practice in place for poultry, swine, veal, mink and ranch fox.  These codes have been accepted by both the Federal and Provincial governments and by farming organizations.  A code for dairy cattle is in the final phase of approval.  However, the introduction of voluntary Codes of Practice has not solved all the problems of intensive livestock rearing methods, inasmuch as some of the worst systems are still in use.  The rearing of animals for human consumption in a modern, highly-competitive world market created many complex technical and ethical problems.  There are no simple solutions.

The best hope for understanding these problems and developing improved and more ethical systems lies with our educational and research institutions.  In the spirit of this belief, the Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada has made grants to support research by the following individuals and institutions:

• University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • In 1973 the Foundation supported field research by Dr. John Bareham, in Cambridge, United Kingdom, into developing a form of poultry cage for egg-layers which would allow the birds to have more space and the opportunity to nest and roost while maintaining the mechanical advantages (egg-gathering, manure removal, auto-feeding and watering) of the standard battery cage system.
    
    The cage developed by Dr. Bareham was a substantial improvement over the battery cage in use at that time (1973), which in turn was considerably larger than the cages which are now commonly used (1990)!  The Foundation arranged for Dr. Bareham to come to Canada and present his work to the Federal Department of Agriculture in Ottawa.  Unfortunately, the Federal authorities expressed no interest. 
    
    
• University of Edinburgh (Agricultural College)
  • Through the Farm Animal Care Trust, United Kingdom, funds were provided to assist in developing a new family pig pen.  The Stolba Pen was eventually developed and is being studied in Europe and North America as the basis for an alternative rearing system for swine.
    
    
• University of Saskatchewan
  • National Survey of Intensive Farming Practices in Canada
     
    In 1981 the Foundation made the first attempt to identify, quantify and describe intensive farming practices in Canada.  Dr. C. M. Williams, Head of the Animal Science Department, University of Saskatchewan, was asked to produce a national report and a grant was made available to make this survey possible.
    
    The National Survey by Dr. Williams recommended the appointment by the Federal Minister of Agriculture of an Expert Advisory Committee on Farm Animal Welfare and Behaviour.  This recommendation was accepted by the Minister and a Committee has been appointed.  Dr. Williams was appointed as the Chairman of the Committee.  The Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada has been asked to appoint a representitive.
    
    
• Quebec Society for the Defence of Animals
  
  • Due to special circumstances, the Quebec Society for the Defence of Animals was asked to arrange for and carry out a survey of intensive farming practices in the Province of Quebec.  A grant was provided to cover the cost of this work.
    
    
• University of Guelph
  
  • Important behavioural research into the aviary system of housing egg-laying poultry, first developed in Europe, was undertaken at the University of Guelph by Dr. Frank Hurnik.  The Foundation has provided 50% of the cost of a three-year trial comparing this system to the battery cage system.
    
    
• Farm Animal Care Trust (United Kingdom)
  
  • Support was given to FACT (UK) to develop a mechanical method of picking up and crating broiler chickens.  The TANDEV broiler mechanical gatherer is being manufactured and is available to be used as an alternative to the widely used manual method which leads to a great deal of injury and suffering.
    
    
• Bio-Ethics '87
  • In 1987 the Foundation sponsored an international conference on Animal Bio-Ethics and Applied Ethology.  The conference was joint ly sponsored by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts.
    
    Held in Montreal in September, 1987, the conference attracted wide interest and support in Canada, the United States and Europe, with speakers from the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Australia.  The conference was successful in highlighting many ethical concerns in the rearing of food animals.
    
    
• Canadian Farm Animal Care Trust (CanFACT) 
  
  • As a direct development of Bio-Ethics '87 the Trustees of the Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada decided to sponsor the incorporation and organization of a new, national group which would concentrate on developing alternative systems to the present food rearing techniques.  The Foundation provided financial support for the organization of the new group and some of the Trustees of the Foundation agreed to serve as the first Directors of the new society.
    
    
• Brownlee Award
  • The Foundation sponsors an annual award to the individual whose publications have done the most to further the welfare of farm animals.  In 1988, the first award was given to Dr. Alec Brownlee, after whom the award was named.  Dr. Brownlee, a scientist in Edinburgh, Scotland is considered the father of farm animal ethology and behaviour.
    

    In 1989 the award was given to Dr André Dallaire, Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, St-Hyacinthe, Québec