Making a difference or distorting the truth?
On the website of the animal-welfare organization Mercy for Animals, people interested in becoming “undercover investigators” at factory farms or slaughterhouses are warned to “be prepared to witness unimaginable cruelty.”
To its critics, such language unfairly assumes that the food processing industry is rife with animal abuse — and demonstrates the activist group’s “shameful” inclination to distort and sensationalize.
But Mercy for Animals makes no apologies. Since expanding into Canada in 2012, the U.S.-based group says it has carried out a dozen hidden-camera investigations at randomly chosen meat, poultry and dairy facilities from B.C. to Quebec, and uncovered mistreatment every time.
“Animal abuse runs rampant through the industry from birth to life to the transport and the slaughter of these animals and within each industry, whether it’s cows used for milk, chickens used for eggs, chickens used for meat, pigs used for bacon,” said Krista Hiddema, the vice-president of Mercy for Animals in Canada.
Tension between activists and industry ratcheted up last week following the release of video footage from Mercy for Animals’ latest undercover sting. It showed workers at various B.C. chicken factory farms engaging in what the group called “sadistic” behaviour: punting birds like footballs, or stomping on them; throwing them against walls; slamming them against transport crates; even ripping the legs off live birds.
Sofina Foods, the company that operates the Port Coquitlam, B.C., processing facility where the birds were destined, called the images “disturbing and unacceptable.” Elite Farm Services, Sofina’s chicken supplier, immediately dismissed five of its employees and one supervisor.
The B.C. SPCA, meanwhile, said it planned to recommend to Crown counsel charges under the federal Criminal Code and provincial animal welfare laws.
Ian Duncan, a professor emeritus in animal welfare at the University of Guelph, said while he isn’t completely comfortable with the tactics used by Mercy for Animals, the results speak for themselves.
“At the end of the day, they’re doing good,” Duncan said. “I say that reluctantly. It’s a pity we have to have spies.”
However, the national group representing Canada’s chicken industry issued a statement stressing the need for context. Chicken Farmers of Canada said while there is “no defence” for mistreatment of birds, this kind of abuse is “not representative of how the industry works as a whole.”
In March, the industry group pushed back even harder, accusing Mercy for Animals of employing “shameful” and “deliberately misleading” tactics by incorporating out-of-context footage into a campaign targeting chickens processed for fast-food outlets — claims the non-profit denies.
The Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council also chimed in that month, saying Mercy for Animals was “not being forthright and transparent about their real purpose, which is to stop the consumption of animal protein in Canada.”
Hiddema scoffs at claims of a hidden agenda. “It does make me laugh, I won’t lie,” she said. “There’s nothing hidden about our views. We are unabashedly a vegan organization.”
While undercover videos gathered by Mercy for Animals volunteers have succeeded over the years in putting pressure on veal farms to stop housing baby calves in narrow crates and hog farms to stop putting pregnant sows in small gestation crates, Hiddema says gaps remain in oversight, which is a responsibility shared between the federal and provincial governments and industry.
One area that falls under federal jurisdiction is the welfare of animals when they’re being transported to slaughterhouses. Ottawa is in the process of amending regulations for the first time in 40 years, but if an April hearing of the standing committee on agriculture and agri-food is any indication, reaching a consensus will be a challenge.
Ottawa is proposing to scale back the maximum amount of time animals can be in transport. For cattle, it would drop from 52 to 36 hours. For pigs, it would go from 36 to 28 hours. Hiddema testified the cap should be eight hours. But Kenneth Metzger, a veterinarian for Ontario’s hog and beef production industries, said there was “no scientific evidence” that shorter transport times would enhance animal welfare.
“In fact, the research shows that loading and unloading is the most stressful part of the journey and where most of the injuries occur.” He asked the committee not to “give in to the irrational objectives of the animal activists.”
At the end of the hearing, Conservative MP John Nater, the son of pig farmers and son-inlaw of dairy farmers, couldn’t resist injecting a bit of his own opinion.
“I simply cannot let the statement stand that there’s some kind of systemic abuse of animals on Canadian farms . ... I think it’s a slap in the face to the hard-working farm families to imply, even make an implicit statement, that there’s abuse going on in these farms and in the standards.”
When it comes to the handling of animals on farms, some progress has been made over the years to bring all sides — industry groups, veterinarians, animal-welfare groups and government — together to develop recommended “codes of practice” under an umbrella organization called the National Farm Animal Care Council. Some provinces now cite these codes in their animal welfare legislation.
Jackie Wepruk, the council’s general manager, says the council takes the position that it is simply not realistic to have inspectors everywhere at all times. So instead of demonizing farmers, it’s better to have them at the table.
“It’s an honest effort to improve animal welfare,” she said. “Definitely not window dressing.”
Chicken Farmers of Canada says it has developed a strict animal care program based on those recommended codes. Under the program, the industry’s provincial boards hire auditors to ensure farms are in compliance every year. As of 2016, the program is also the subject of an annual third-party audit. The industry group would not say how often farms have not been found in compliance.
Not surprisingly, Hiddema takes a dim view of the whole process. Those audits, she says, are akin to, “You know your mother’s coming for dinner and you clean the house.”
The only way, she says, to truly ensure animals are not being abused is for farms to install video cameras and livestream footage to the Internet. “Video doesn’t lie.”