One of our true national treasures, Linda McQuaig (why has she not received an Order of Canada?) recently wrote an article detailing the abysmal conditions under which pigs await slaughter. It is a piece that should make all of us cringe, whether or not we regularly eat pork:
Many people — meat-eaters included — object to the factory farm practice of confining pigs for virtually their entire lives to metal cages so small they can’t even turn around.
That’s why the Canadian pork industry, sensitive about its public image, decided to eliminate the practice — a move hailed by Canada’s Humane Society as “a watershed moment for farm animals in Canada.”
This led to a rare round of positive coverage for the beleaguered industry, with the media reporting that the move would please Canadian consumers and bring Canadian animal welfare practices in line with more advanced European standards.
All that happened back in 2014. Yet, six years later, millions of pigs in Canada continue to spend their lives locked in these narrow cages — because the ban doesn’t actually come into effect until 2024.Many people — meat-eaters included — object to the factory farm practice of confining pigs for virtually their entire lives to metal cages so small they can’t even turn around.
In fact, that leisurely 10-year phase-in period seems about to get longer. The pork industry has decided it needs more time and has indicated its desire to grant itself a further five-year extension.
How is this possible? In a word: self-regulation, a self-regulation that is aided and abetted by the Doug Ford government, which
just made it easier for the industry to shield its operations from public view, passing legislation last month aimed at cracking down on trespassing activists and journalists who often work undercover on industrial farms in order to take photos and videos.
Those videos have done a great deal to raise public awareness of the conditions under which our food makes its way to our table:
One undercover video, aired last month on CTV’s national investigative program W5, included graphic footage of adult pigs being hit with heavy objects and baby pigs squealing and squirming in pain as workers cut off their tails and castrate them.
Lest we be inclined to think of animals as insensate beings, consider this:
As renowned anthropologist Jane Goodall notes: “Farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear and pain.”
The intensity of animal emotions has been captured on videos of rescued farm animals experiencing their first taste of freedom. They run, romp and play — even enormous adult pigs — and certainly appear to be experiencing something akin to joy.
Of course, any dog owner can confirm that animals feel emotions. And any dog owner would gasp at the thought of their dog trapped in a confining cage, 24 hours a day, unable to even turn around.
But the factory farm industry is counting on us not making the connection. And the best way to ensure that, as Doug Ford knows, is to prevent us from seeing photos of locked-up pigs looking every bit as sad and scared as our own dogs would be in those cages.
Whether we are vegetarians, vegans or regular or occasional consumers of animal flesh, it is incumbent upon all of us not only to be aware of the deplorable conditions under which our food is processed but also to demand much better both from the industry and the Doug Ford government.
I once read that pigs are about as smart as border collies, and they lose their minds trapped in a cage. Phasing in over ten years is just another way to say, "We don't care about this, so we're not really going to deal with it effectively.' - Just like happens with climate action and what happened this afternoon with Ford's ridiculous emergency measures that start in five days (and who likely delayed the announcement so we wouldn't complain that it started in over a week!! If we care, we can pull out all the stops to make change happen in no time. We know that to be true.
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine the flurry of activity that will precede this provincial lockdown, Marie. Despite the well-publicized dangers of this virus, many people continue to be heedless.
DeleteAlso - pssst - I think you accidentally copied and pasted part of the quotation twice.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marie. I'll fix that right away. I am having some trouble adjusting to the new dashboard for Blogger, but obviously a bit of proofreading would have caught this before I published the entry.
DeleteThe meat industry is a national disgrace. It's all about providing as much product as possible for the greatest profit at the cheapest prices and, yes, governments, federal and provincial, are complicit.
ReplyDelete* which would mean getting off my fat arse and taking a bit of exercise at the oar locks.
We wind up with diseased animals living in atrocious conditions. Most feedlots are disease incubators. Animals, packed in confined areas, both contract and transmit disease to healthy animals. That's why more antibiotics are used in animal husbandry than for human needs. Couple that with growth and fertility hormones and you have a bio-chemical swamp.
It used to be from the farmer to the abattoir to the customer before the days of the industrial food chains.
I'm lucky in that I'm able to source most of my meat and poultry locally. That means farm-raised animals. I know the producer. These days I've pretty much lost my taste for meat but I eat chicken, turkey and seafood instead. I've even toyed with buying a skiff and rowing out to put out a few crab and prawn pots. I think my son in law would like to get into that once the pandemic is past.*
We also need to remember the sins of the processors. Harper allowed them to self-regulate. Listeria was the result. And Covid has shown the plight of packing plant workers, elbow to elbow, on the cutting lines. The producers howl like cut cats at the suggestion they expand their lines to give their workers a little more safety.
The industry really benefits no one save for its shareholders.
Your comments are well-taken, Mound. Unfortunately, too many of us are happy to turn a blind eye to such unpleasant and inconvenient truths.
DeleteFirstly, since this is my first time commenting since your hiatus I'd just like to say I'm glad you're back!
ReplyDeleteI live in an area not too far away from Putnam, the town in which the investigated farm is located. I have a few friends that re in the farming sector. There has been one thing that runs consistent when talking with all of them: they seem to be unaffected by the cruelty that goes on. They seem to take it as a fact of life for those animals, and in this case, pigs.
This shows that the industry is incapable of self-regulation. The industry workers seem to have the mentality of "that's just the way it is because it's the way it has always been." They lack the self-discipline and are too shortsighted to see through meaningful change on their own. This is where the governments responsible need to step to see through with the change that is needed.
Unfortunately, with the conservative governments that we have here in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba most notably - that change will not come under them. As the W5 investigation report states, there has been a law passed by Kenney that outlaws undercover filming and whistleblowing. It is based on laws in a few States down south. Pallister and Ford are looking to pass similar laws of their own. Ontario's agriculture, food and rural development minister described it has a law that prohibits employees that work there under "false pretenses." This alone, shows my fear that change in this industry is far away from happening. Especially under these current governments.
Thanks for your comments, Noah. The notion of self-regulation is deeply flawed, as it seems to ignore a basic fact: businesses exist to make maximum profit. How that profit is made seems of little or no concern to them.
DeleteWe see animals as our property, Lorne. Our desire to acquire and dominate is at the root of our essential illness.
ReplyDeleteSeeing ourselves as above nature, rather than part of it, seems to be one of our fundamental flaws, Owen.
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