Despite repressive law, animal activists won’t be deterred
As many Canadians spent last weekend preparing for Thanksgiving dinners, a group of over 150 animal activists were attempting to enter and expose a turkey farm in Ontario. Their goal — as has been with similar efforts in the past — was to expose hidden cruelties that turkeys face on Canadian factory farms.
It didn’t work this time. It appears authorities got wind of their plans. Police arrived at the farm first and activists did not make it into the building, so the conditions inside those massive sheds stuffed with animals went undocumented and unpublicized.
Perhaps it was not the best laid plan. Even still, the activists tell me they are not deterred; not by police, and not by recently enacted ag-gag legislation meant, in part, to discourage this type of trespassing.
In December 2020, the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act came into effect in Ontario. Under this ag-gag law, anyone caught trespassing on a farm or in a slaughterhouse, or simply occupying public space outside of trucks hauling animals, can be fined up to $15,000 for a first offence, and $25,000 for repeat offences. It also makes it illegal for anyone to enter farms and slaughterhouses under “false pretenses,” which means investigators and journalists working undercover in these facilities can also be fined.
As a journalist, I am currently part of a lawsuit against the Ontario government on the basis that the law interferes with my charter right to freedom of expression.
One of the group’s organizers, Amy Soranno, says activists feel even more compelled to act because undercover investigators and journalists are being legally prevented from entering animal agriculture spaces. For these activists, breaking the law is worth it to bring the sights and sounds of these horrible places to the public eye.
The farm in question this time, Hybrid Turkey/Hendrix Genetics in Kitchener, was charged with animal cruelty in 2015, after footage gathered by an undercover investigator was broadcast by the CBC. Since then, the company has claimed it follows all animal care guidelines.
But what most Canadians likely don’t know is that these guidelines are created and overseen largely by the industry itself. There are no actual laws governing the everyday treatment of animals on Canadian farms, and most provincial animal care laws have blanket exemptions for “standard” farming practices.
For turkeys, those standard practices can include beak trimming via hot blade, dew claw removal with scissors, and severe confinement in massive sheds tucked far away from rural highways.
It is this secrecy and self-policing that motivates activists to continue trying to expose the animal agriculture industry. And now, with a law in place that appears only meant to keep those secrets of animal-farming hidden, activists are more motivated than ever. They’ll just have to find a different way in next time.