Tuesday, June 10, 2014

B.C. dairy-farm abuse fuels opposition


Canada’s farmers are under heavy attack now that Mercy for Animals has released the third underground video depicting horrific animal abuse, this time at what it claims is the largest dairy farm in Canada in Chilliwack, B.C.

Humane Society International is among a number of animal welfare and animal activist groups that are jumping on the bandwagon, demanding politicians take stern action to discipline farmers.

Chilliwack Cattle Sales fired eight employees after the video became public.

Humane Society International and the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say the eight ought to face criminal charges for beating cattle with chains and canes.

Earlier Mercy-for-Animal videos showed turkeys being clubbed with a shovel at Hybrid Turkeys of Kitchener and chicks put through a grinder at a hatchery at Hanover.

Here’s what the Humane Society International wrote in a news release this week:

“The abuse and gratuitous cruelty witnessed in an undercover investigation on the largest dairy farm in Canada is horrendous.
“Under current laws, farm animals in Canada have virtually no legal protection.
‘No independent oversight exists on farms to protect animals from acts of violence.
‘Undercover investigations such as the one conducted by Mercy For Animals Canada are the only window the public has into factory farms confining animals by the thousands and, in most cases, the only reprieve these animals have in instances of abuse.
“Humane Society International/Canada commends the authorities for acting to bring the individuals responsible in this case to justice, and urges all provinces to immediately begin conducting on-farm inspections to enforce basic welfare standards.”
“Facts:
                The B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has recommended eight workers on a dairy farm in Chilliwack, B.C. to be charged with animal cruelty after receiving secretly-filmed footage from animal protection group Mercy For Animals Canada.
                Approximately 700 million farm animals are raised and slaughtered in Canada each year. Undercover investigations have routinely exposed suffering caused by standard agricultural practices as well as callous acts of cruelty.
                Despite numerous public campaigns and widespread support to do so, Canada’s federal animal cruelty laws have not been meaningfully updated since 1892.
"No province conducts proactive on-farm inspections to verify welfare standards.”

The animal welfare and animal activist groups were all out with their publicity long before the dairy industry, including well-financed marketing boards, said anything.