December 29,2010-12-29

I just was catching up on some reading over the holidays and came across an article in the B.C. Animal Sense magazine that talks about why the SPCA cannot prosecute against cruelty that is common place in the rearing of food animals. Canada’s codes of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farm Animals set out guidelines only and any practice that is considered “reasonable and generally accepted” is exempt from both Provincial and Federal animal cruelty laws.

So how is it that we would never allow a Zoo to keep animals in an enclosure that did not allow them to see out, be able to turn around and have to stand on concrete for the duration of its life, yet we allow literally millions of female pigs, known as sows, to live their entire lives like this to produce the food that we purchase.

What makes it wrong in the one circumstance and yet is not only considered OK but is encouraged and supported by the Government in the other instance.  One reason is that I think the majority of the public live in ignorance about how their food is actually manufactured. Certainly the farmers do not want the public to see how the animals are really kept. I have never yet seen a petting zoo that is supposed to be acting as an educational tool, actually show how animals are really raised on the average modern farm. Everything is all cute little lambs nursing from their moms and chickens pecking about on the ground.

 The sides of the delivery trucks in my area delivering milk and dairy products show a cow in a beautiful green pasture. None of this representation of farm life is anywhere near reality. Maybe a lawyer should consider suing the dairy industry for false advertising?

I am mystified as to how we rationalize the incredibly cruel farming methods for our food animals and then spend so much time and energy to prosecute people who are cruel to a single animal. Either animals suffer or they don’t you cannot have it both ways depending on who owns the animal and the purpose of the ownership.

The industry leaders will tell you it is necessary to treat the animals this way in order to produce cheap food to feed the masses and the poor. To me that is the same as my Mother telling me to clean my plate because there are hungry children in Africa. My leftovers could never impact the hungry in the other places of the world and cruelty cannot be justified just to produce cheaper food. If you are truly concerned about feeding the poor any well educated person knows that meat is not the answer as it consumes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of finished beef. Meat is not the answer to world hunger. Also the more I learn about factory farming the more I learn about how many animals are killed during the process from birth to slaughter. Each year in Canada 2 ½ to 3 MILLION animals arrive at the slaughter house dead! This means they cannot be used for human consumption and must go to the rendering plant. Also many animals are destroyed because they do not grow quickly enough. It is all about automation and fitting the profile of the desired finished product.It really has nothing to do with food it has everything to do with profit for the huge corporations that control this industry.

Anyway those are some of my thoughts today on the anti cruelty laws and how they are enforced.
If you want to learn more here is a link to Youtube about sow crates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmQfZTSNwuc