The Ontario Truckers Association is trying to persuade the
livestock and poultry industries to support its efforts to introduce driver
training modules for each type of livestock and poultry.
Deanna Pagnan, manager of the agriculture division of the
Ontario Truckers Association, noted that the pork industry has a well-developed
standard largely because truckers needed to be certified to haul hogs into the
United States.
The Ontario Pork marketing board, when it had sole marketing
authority, required all Ontario truckers to have their drivers trained to the
U.S. standards.
Pagnan said ideally there would be similar industry-wide
adoption of similar standards for all livestock and poultry.
The Ontario Truckers Association has already developed a
general training program and standard, she said, and now wants to develop
modules for each species.
She said the association has learned, for example, that the
standards need to differ among poultry because there are differences between
broilers, spent hens and turkeys.
Pagnan is trying to raise the profile of the Ontario
Truckers Association’s plans in view of recent news reports that Maple Lodge
Farms Ltd. faces 61 criminal charges laid by the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency and it, plus several other truckers, have been heavily fined by the CFIA
for failing to meet legislated standards for animal welfare.
Pagnan said the association wants co-operation from those
involved in the supply chain so those people and companies will, in turn,
require driver training for those who are transporting their livestock and
poultry.
Pagnan said she has spoken to a number of associations, such
as the Ontario Farm Animal Council (now named Farm and Food Care) and poultry-industry
associations.
At a recent meeting of the Waterloo Pork Producers
Association, Katie Sinclair of Quality Meat Packers told how animal activists
have organized protests at the company’s entrance in downtown Toronto and how
that has created anxiety for truckers and plant staff.
The protesters typically take videos of everything the
drivers and plant staff are doing as they unload pigs, they video pigs in the
truck and they make nasty comments to the drivers,
Pagnan said that’s why the training will include media
relations and reacting to protesters.
