Billboards urge better treatment for pigs

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This article was published 21/08/2023 (775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eight billboards have been set up across the city dedicated to the Winnipeg Humane Society’s Stop the Suffering campaign, bringing awareness to welfare concerns associated with the transportation, husbandry and housing of pigs in the province’s industrial farms.

Canadian pigs are often raised on barren concrete floors with no outdoor access, ability to forage and adhere to their social groups the way that they naturally would, Brittany Semeniuk, animal welfare specialist at the Winnipeg Humane Society, said.

“These animals are sentient individual beings, and not just a product, even though that’s often how industry treats them,” she said. “They have the same capability to feel pain, the way that our pet dogs do and yet, we would never subject our pet dogs to this sort of treatment.”

Female pigs, known as sows, spend time in gestation crates to protect them from injury during their gestation period of roughly four months.

These crates restrict their movement so they cannot walk or turn as they wait to give birth, which is one drop in the bucket when we talk about the welfare of these animals, said Semeniuk.

After the piglets are born, sows are moved to farrowing crates, allowing room for the mother to lay down while her babies feed.

A Manitoba Pork Council spokesperson said in an emailed statement that more than 95 per cent of pigs in Manitoba are housed in groups, including about half of the sows in the province.

All pig producers in Canada have until July 2029 to transition to larger gestation crates and group housing systems, according to the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs.

The Code of Practice outlines over 100 guidelines for pig handling, housing, veterinary care, and the preparation for transport. It was last updated in August 2020.

Manitoba is the largest pork producer in Canada, housing and slaughtering 7.7 million pigs per year, approximately 30 per cent of all pig production nationally.

Routine husbandry procedures like castration, tail clipping, and ear notching are done on awake piglets without anesthetic, receiving only a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug injection — the same classification of drugs as human Tylenol, said Semeniuk.

“These animals are not receiving sufficient pain control for these operations. These procedures are very invasive and painful,” she said.

Veterinarians that specialize in swine medicine regularly visit pig farms and work with the farmers to develop protocols to maintain the health and welfare of the animals, said Manitoba Pork Council.

“Manitoba hog farmers are committed to making continuous improvements for the care of pigs through ongoing research and adopting progressive standards of animal care,” said their spokesperson.

Causing “suffering, serious injury or harm, or extreme anxiety or distress that significantly impairs (an animals’) health or well- being” is prohibited in Manitoba unless it occurs through an accepted activity such as agricultural practices, according to the Animal Care Act.

Additionally, all livestock can be legally transported with no restrictions on extreme heat or cold temperatures.

“No one is looking in those vehicles to figure out whether the animals are suffering from heatstroke, frostbite or whether they’re overcrowded,” said Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy with Animal Justice.

The federal government recommends delaying loading and the transport of pigs during hot periods, reducing the loading density in trucks, providing sufficient ventilation, parking in shade and minimizing the number and duration of stops to avoid the build-up of heat.

Manitoba exports 27.4 per cent of its pork to the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture refused entry of an overcrowded truckload with dead pigs on board that was trying to cross at the Emerson border on July 13.

Some of the pigs died of extreme heat exhaustion and the trucker was required to return to a Brandon farm to avoid more pigs dying in the back, according to an access to information request provided to the Free Press.

“To my knowledge, no enforcement action was taken against the driver, or the farm,” said Mitchell.

The province’s Ag-gag law makes it illegal for people to get close to transport trucks and interact with animals, which is an attempt to hide animal suffering, she said.

Reporting the abuse and mistreatment of farm animals is a complaint-based system and it becomes nearly impossible to identify unless there is an employee whistleblower, said Mitchell.

Manitoba Pork Council said that any concerns of neglect or cruelty can be reported anonymously to the Chief Veterinary Officer and are followed up on by Animal Protection Officers.

Mitchell wants to see governments “step up to the plate” and create binding standards of care to protect the welfare of pigs and other farm animals, making sure that enforcement officers are completing regular health inspections.

The New Democratic Party critic for agriculture, Diljeet Brar, said “we will continue to listen to the experts to ensure that animals are treated humanely while also supporting local producers.”

In addition, a spokesperson for Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson said “farms that market pigs to federally inspected processing plants in Manitoba are registered with national on-farm assurance programs that set standards for animal care and pork safety.”

Both parties did not provide a comment on whether they were prioritizing animal welfare concerns in the upcoming provincial election.

Semeniuk is urging consumers and constituents to talk to their MLAs.

“We have the opportunity before the provincial election to really hold politicians accountable on their stances for animal welfare,” she said.

tessa.adamski@freepress.mb.ca