A recent article in The
Vancouver Sun discusses federal access-to-information documents exposing
the horrors of Canada’s outdated animal transport laws.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency documents reveal that 46
pigs died last year in seven separate incidents involving transport to a
slaughterhouse in Langley, British Columbia. The reports indicate that some of
the pigs displayed necrotic hues of green and purple.
In one case, 275 pigs were loaded into a trailer on the
morning of April 20, 2016, in Alberta and unloaded late the same day at
Donald’s Fine Foods in Langley. Eight pigs were found dead in the bottom rear
compartment of the trailer. Inspectors blamed “high loading density on a
“moderate hot day for the pigs’ deaths.
On January 6, 2016, over two dozen pigs died during
transport in one of the worst incidents from last year. The documents show that
while being transported from Alberta to Donald’s Fine Foods for slaughter, 27 pigs
died due to cold winter conditions with temperatures as low as minus 10
degrees Celsius.
Krista Hiddema, vice president of Mercy For Animals in
Canada, said the incidents exposed through the federal documents were “neither
isolated nor surprising. It’s estimated that 8 million animals die during
transport in Canada annually.
In 2014 an MFA undercover investigation into Western Hog
Exchange in Red Deer, Alberta, exposed the cruel transport practices in the
pork industry: Pigs are beaten, packed into trucks, and
forced to endure overcrowding and temperature extremes, suffering heat stress,
frostbite, dehydration, injury, and disease.
Canada is far behind the rest of the modern world when it
comes to live animal transport. In fact, it’s been more than a decade since the
Canadian government updated its transport laws.
But Canadians want change. An independent survey found
that 90 percent of Canadians believe that
animals should not be transported for longer than eight hours without food,
water, and rest; animals should be protected from weather extremes; and
companies that violate these basic standards should be severely
penalized.
It’s high time Canada’s government updated the country’s animal
transport laws. Go to TransportTorture.ca today and make your
voice heard.
Remember, you can help farmed animals at every meal by
choosing compassionate vegan foods. Click here to
get started today!