Manitoba laws failing animals on farms

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/12/2023 (689 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TIMES are changing when it comes to Canadians’ dietary choices, with plant-based proteins and milks on the rise and those industries positioned to become key economic players. Predictably, the animal agriculture industry is fighting back.

In a recent letter to the editor to the Free Press, six leaders from Manitoba’s animal agriculture industry denounced an op-ed (New year a good time to go plant-based, Jessica Scott-Reid, Dec. 15) encouraging readers to eat more plant-based food in the new year. The industry letter calls the op-ed’s claims about the lack of legal protections for farmed animals in this province baseless. Unfortunately, it’s the industry representatives who have their facts wrong.

Manitobans care about the treatment of farmed animals, so it’s important to set the record straight. The Animal Care Act does make it an offence to inflict serious harm or extreme distress on an animal. So far so good. But the act goes on to exempt suffering or distress caused through agricultural uses.

The industry letter claims that codes of practice for the treatment of farmed animals are enshrined in regulations. But they fail to mention that those codes are referenced only as a defence. The law does not mandate that farm owners and operators follow a particular code, but rather exempts distress that would otherwise be unlawful (say, forcing one’s bird to spend their life in a wire cage so small they cannot even spread their wings) if it is caused through an agricultural use deemed acceptable in a code (you’re in the clear if your bird is an egg-laying hen).

The letter also fails to mention that many of the codes of practice referenced in the regulation, such as those for euthanasia or for animals used at exhibitions, are so old that they no longer appear to exist. The Animal Care Act is incredibly outdated.

Finally, while voluntary codes of practice developed through the private National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) are developed by a range of stakeholders, the vast majority are from industry. Out of 29 NFACC partners, only two animal welfare groups have a seat at the table (and they are not “animal rights organizations” as the industry letter claims).

So where does that leave us? Though they are weak and underenforced, Canada does have laws to protect the welfare of farmed animals during transport and slaughter. But while they’re on the farm, industry calls the shots. Farmed animals in Manitoba endure standard practices that cause unimaginable suffering, many of which are banned elsewhere. Keeping mink in tiny wire cages in order to kill them for their fur is being banned in a growing list of jurisdictions, both for animal welfare and public health reasons, yet around 25,000 mink are farmed for fur in Manitoba each year.

Female pigs in Manitoba are commonly confined for much of their lives in gestation crates, leaving them unable to walk, engage natural behaviours, or even turn around. Canada’s pork industry promised to follow the lead of countries like the U.K. and phase out gestation crates by 2024, but with no laws holding them to the commitment the industry now says it’s extending its own deadline by another five years.

The release of covertly recorded footage has shown time and time again that violent abuse on farms is rampant. Yet public inspections and enforcement actions take place only when a cruelty complaint is made to authorities.

The industry letter also makes misleading health and environmental claims about the products that they’re hawking. Canada’s food guide was recently overhauled to place an emphasis on plant-based diets (which can easily provide enough iron and B12) and even with the improved environmental performance touted in the industry letter, animal agriculture will still have a substantial effect on climate change.

The industry letter concludes that consumers “should have access to … objective information about where their food comes from.” I couldn’t agree more. Rather than nebulous claims about products that are “all from a good place,” Manitobans deserve to know how farmed animals are treated in our increasingly industrialized food system.

If industry was transparent, consumers may decide that legal protections are needed and the fox should no longer be left to guard the henhouse.

Kaitlyn Mitchell is a Winnipeg-based animal rights lawyer and director of legal advocacy with Animal Justice.