B. Briggs Trucking Ltd. had its animal welfare fine reduced from $13,000 to $10,000 by the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal.
The fine was levied by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after Briggs trucked almost 23,000 chickens in December cold to a packing plant in Edmonton.
When they were loaded the temperature was between minus 18 and 23 degrees with a windchill of approximately minus 30 to 33.
Total transport time varied from 10 to 12 hours, including loading and unloading.
Emily Crocco, tribunal chair, wrote that “given that half of the high dead-on-arrival trailers were climate-controlled and that the trailers
were carefully loaded to protect the birds from inclement weather, I conclude that it was unlikely that, based on the trailer conditions alone, the birds would suffer due to exposure to meteorological conditions during transportation.”
However, Crocco decided the birds were wet when loaded and that’s why so many died of the cold.
