Fur protest banner greets Highway 8 drivers
KITCHENER — A provincial election is coming next June.
Local fur farm opponents, who hung an “End Fur Farming” banner from the Franklin Street bridge over Highway 8 on Thursday afternoon, are well aware of it.
They feel now is an opportune time to push for a fur farm ban, especially with fur farm bans getting traction in Europe and with a Humane Society of Canada poll from 2014 showing twothirds of Canadians support such a ban.
“We’re trying to draw attention to that fact and get the politicians to move and start discussing that during the election cycle this year,” said Malcolm Klimowicz, co-founder of the Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance, which made the banner.
“We’re seeing animals cramped in tiny, wire cages. They’re never able to touch the ground and they’re killed for a stupid clothing decoration, which a lot of people find unethical and immoral.”
In Ontario, about 40 fur farms operate.
Gary Hazlewood, executive director of the Canadian Mink Breeders Association, says his industry responds to the arguments of fur farm protesters the same way any other livestock group does. He points out mink farmers follow a code of practice, which was updated in 2013, put together under the auspices of the National Farm Animal Care Council. He says animal welfare groups were represented at the table when the code was revised. So were representatives of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.
“The code of practice was a process, that through consensus of all the various stakeholders, came up with a list of requirements and recommendations,” Hazlewood said. “This, we do. This is done for all other livestock groups, too.”
Starting next year, he said, a process just formulated will see third-party auditors used to ensure the requirements of the code are followed.
“In the meantime, if there’s any complaints they go to the (Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals),” he said.
“To my knowledge, there haven’t been any instances where the OSPCA has found there to be animal cruelty or anything under their jurisdiction.”