Farm animals treated cruelly, advocate says

WINNIPEG HUMANE SOCIETY PHOTO Enlarge Image 

These pigs are kept in cages so small, they can’t turn around.

A leading American advocate for ending cruelty to animal agriculture is hoping his stories of success south of the border will inspire his Canadian counterparts.

Paul Shapiro, senior director of the Humane Society of the United States, said despite last fall's passing of a resolution to ban intensive confinement systems in California, there is still much work to be done in improving the living conditions of egg-laying hens and pigs used for breeding purposes.

He said the majority of the 26 million egg-laying hens in Canada are confined to wire mesh cages in which they're unable to spread their wings "for their whole lives" while breeding pigs are generally kept in two-foot-wide gestation crates that are so small they're unable to turn around.

"These animals have done nothing to deserve any kind of punishment. We take so much from these animals, truly the very least that they deserve is some semblance of a decent life," he said from Washington, D.C.

Shapiro is speaking at a two-day event hosted by the Winnipeg Humane Society this weekend. It is not open to the media or the public.

Bill McDonald, executive director of the WHS, said animals deserve five freedoms -- freedom from hunger and thirst; from pain and illness; from discomfort; from fear and distress; and the freedom to express normal behaviour.

"When you see a pig in a crate, they can take two steps back and two steps forward. That's not normal behaviour, they're rooters, they build nests out of straw and hay," he said.

McDonald said he realizes farmers are business people who produce the food to feed the world and they're sensitive to increases in their cost structures. He said he's not out to ban the eating of meat. "We just want to make sure those animals are humanely treated, raised and slaughtered," he said.

Karl Kynoch, chairman of Manitoba Pork, said the local industry is constantly conducting research to discover best practices for the care for animals. He said all too often, lobby groups calling for better treatment aren't fully informed of the current situation.

"We already have animal-welfare codes that we follow. Anything we do for the animals, we do to treat them better and keep them in high health," he said, adding there are pros and cons to every system, including group housing.

He said the hog industry processes about four million animals a year and is worth $1 billion in annual exports to the Manitoba economy.

The weekend event will also include participants from Humane Society International, Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals, Canadian Coalition for Food Animals, World Society for the Protection of Animals, Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, and the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 13, 2009 A9