Here in Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency routinely informed L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd. that audits were coming, usually about two weeks in advance of the inspections.
After I put that information on this website, the CFIA sent a note to its staff that there should be no advance notice of audits and inspections. But I have heard nary a word about discipline for some of the relatively senior staff who provided the tips to Gray.
ABC news
is reporting that days before a Butterball
turkey farm was raided by police because of allegations of animal
abuse, the company had been tipped off that it was under investigation.
That leak,
according to officials, came from a veterinarian at a government agency charged
with overseeing the health of Butterball's birds.
In
December officials in Hoke County, North Carolina, raided the
Butterball facility, spurred by hidden camera video obtained by the
animal rights group Mercy for Animals.
A Mercy
for Animals activist had worked undercover at the farm for three weeks and
documented what the group called "acts of violence and severe
neglect" on turkeys housed there.
In the
video, workers can be seen kicking and stomping on turkeys, as well as dragging
them by their wings and necks. The video also shows injured birds with open
wounds and exposed flesh.
I'm not happy about animal rights groups spying on farmers, but this issue of tipping off the farm is a matter of principle. Who wouldn't pull up their socks if they knew in advance about an investigation?
