Animal Rights: From Fur to Fanatical, Leather to Legislation

Please click on the image to view the visual presentation.

1 Livestock production is being impacted in many parts of the world by concerns for the welfare of animals. This is happening on farms, in processing plants, on transportation vehicles, in auction marts and wherever livestock animals are being raised. And to be honest, this concern has improved the lives of these animals in many, but probably not all, instances.

2 There are misconceptions that occur when we talk about animal welfare. Often, when someone talks about Animal Welfare, visions of groups such as shown in the powerpoint presentation come to mind. Although animal welfare is certainly influenced by these groups, they are not animal welfare groups. Rather, the photos here are those associated with ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUPS. This slide shows the “SHOCK AND AWE” visions from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)that they use to catch people’s attention. It is important to know that these groups have a purpose. They have no interest in improving animal agriculture, rather they have an interest in eliminating animal agriculture and converting the world to vegetarianism or veganism. But again, this is ANIMAL RIGHTS.

3 So what really is animal welfare? There are a gazillion definitions of animal welfare, but a basic definition that is often used is that animal welfare deals with how humans take care of the physical and the psychological needs of an animal.

4 Should we really be concerned about bird welfare? Well – lets look at the bird. First of all, let’s talk about the physical well being of an animal….

Is a concern for the physical well-being of a animal or a chicken important? We all know from science that it absolutely is. Birds have a similar physical composition to most other animals including us – it has a heart, liver, spleen, intestinal tract and so on. The bird has specific requirements, requirements for nutrition, exercise, light exposure, darkness exposure, space requirements and so on.

5 They also have a very similar nervous system, which means that nerves run throughout the body of a bird, and these nerves have pain receptors similar to yours. In other words, the birds CAN FEEL PAIN. We more than think this, though, we know this. We know birds feel pain from studying the excitation in nerve fibers, from the behaviour of the birds, physiological responses to painful situations etc.

6 We also know that birds are capable of emotions, although maybe not road rage as in the picture on slide 6! For example, they can be afraid, and we can see evidence of that in both their behaviour and their physical response. Situations where this can happen is with poor stockmanship. Although battery cages have shown to have a number of advantages over many other housing systems, they also result in hens that are frustrated when they do not have a nesting site. This can be seen by their pacing behaviour and in the peak in stress hormones during this time. Birds can also feel positive emotions, and that is likely what is occurring when you see birds grabbing a piece of straw and running around a pen.

The bottom line – is the concern for animal welfare important? Yes – it really is, as we see that animals do get sick, feel pain, and even express emotions. We cannot ignore their welfare.

7 I think everyone in this room is aware that the concern for animal welfare is the highest in many parts of the world that is have ever been, and it’s interesting to look at why this is happening.

I have written here that the focus of the general public has changed, and that’s true, but really, the general public has changed.

1940’s approx 46% of Canadians lived in Rural communities and those that lived in urban centres likely had some sort of relationship with others who did live on farms, nearly everyone knew who raised their food and how it their food was raised.
1960’s – 30%
1980’s – 25%
Now under 20% - live in rural Canada

That really changes their outlook on animal production since their association with where food comes from is likely gone. Often, livestock animals are equated with pets, and little differentiation is made between the two of them. This, coupled with the pressure that we are now seeing from Animal Rights groups, has created a huge amount of interest and sometime critisism in how animals are raised.

8  There are likely hundreds of ANIMAL RIGHTS groups in the world. We certainly don’t have time to talk about all of them, but I would like to talk about 2 which have played an important part in some of the changes that have taken place.

9 So – based on these areas of action for PETA, they have targeted food production, leather and fur production, research of any kind where animals are used, circuses, rodeos, even indivual pet owners have received critisism

There are two important words in this statement that help us to understand how PETA operates, and those are policymakers and public.

10 Much of how PETA educates, or a better word would be influences, the public is with demonstration after demonstration

11 So – the group has an immense amount of power, a very large following, and are effective at what they do.

12 PETA also puts a lot of money into their websites, and with an annual budget of $29 million dollars in 2008 alone, they can afford to. Links like “COWS ARE COOL” draw many people to them. Even more frightening though is their pull on children. PETAKIDS.COM is a website totally directed to children, with games, contests and other things to bring children to their site. Once there, pages  encourage kids to become vegans or at the very least, vegetarians, to not wear leather and so on.

13 Likely the most powerful Animal Rights Group right now is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This group is not the SPCA group that runs shelters for stray animals etc, and in fact, has nothing to do with them.

The organization is run by Wayne Pacelle, who is a very media savvy and persuasive individual. HSUS has a huge economic backing, and the group’s net assets at the start of 2008 were well over 200 million dollars.

14 Sonic Corporation – owns 3,500 resteraunts in the US.

When HSUS owns shares, then they can push that company to initiate new policies, and that is exactly what they do. For Example, Sonic Corporation, which owns 3500 restaurants in the US, is working on a new policy for purchasing that will phase out battery cages for hens and gestation stalls for pigs.

15 In the US, Walmart holds 30% of the market share for grocery sales

So again, owning shares, pushing the issue from inside the company, has created huge shifts in the livestock industry.
 

16 Prop 2 – passed Nov 2008 with 63% of the vote. Will be enforced Jan 1 2015. Battery cages will be effectively banned, and failure to comply will result in either a monetary fine or up to ½ year of jail time.

There have been other states that HSUS has pressured create legislation as listed here. These are likely not the USA’s biggest ag states, but that may be part of the plan. By creating a precedence in the smaller states, where there may be less opposition to these rules, then moving to more ag related states is easier to do.

The latest area to be targeted is horse slaughter in the US. Slaughter for food is now illegal, and this has created a disaster situation in the US. Horses are being abandoned. So while some of the welfare issues that these RIGHTS groups are pushing forward are an improvement for animals, not all of them are.

17, 18, 19 20 This situation is NOT going away. As an industry that supplies a product to a consumer, we have no choice but to listen to what the public wants and provide the product they want. If we don’t comply, then we won’t sell. There is always someone else who will.

And for proof that these requirements are being met, these suppliers will likely have to go through an audit process. We know that this is already happening in Saskatchewan.

How do we comply? That will depend on the situation.
For example, companies like Wendy’s are requiring that processers and farms that sell them product MUST pass Farm Animal Welfare Audits. Although it appears that the processing companies are intitiating these audits and actually have to pay the cost of the audit, it’s really important for producers to remember that this is not the processor’s idea. But again – FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL MEAN A LOSS OF THAT MARKET SHARE, and with the number of companies on board for this, our industry cannot afford to lose out.

21 This cannot be ignored. Although they have likely been influenced by the Animal Rights groups I have talked about, the general public who buy our chicken or turkey or eggs are concerned about how we treat our animals. Companies like McDonalds now are willingly making changes to how they run their business to allow for this. For example, McDonald’s worldwide was targeted by PETA and has regulations for poultry welfare in our country, and as a result, have welfare regulations in place in our country. McDonald’s Canada, who used approximately 62 million eggs in 2009 in their Egg McMuffin sandwiches alone, does allow battery cage use, but min of 72 sq. inches per bird. For chicken, McDonalds uses 44 million pounds of chicken each year. They have discussed the elimination of beak trimming, but that has not gone farther than a discussion.
But what is even more interesting now is that McDonald’s is now making changes on their own, without pressure from animal rights groups. Hellman’s mayo another example – all from pressure from the general public, and all to improve their image. Again – this is not going away.

22 Research into areas that impact welfare are really vital to identify and improve the welfare issues themselves, but also to show that the industry really is taking this matter seriously.

Back to the public perception idea.

At the U of S, we have focused quite heavily over the last few years on animal welfare issues, and I would like to take just a minute or two to highlight just a few of these areas.
Originally funded by Saskatchewan Egg Producers, our group has been working on the beak trimming issue for a number of years now. The original project identified the impact that age of trimming had on pain and productivity in chicks. Recently, with the help of commercial hatcheries, we have been focusing also on infrared treatment of beaks.

23 Funded by Aviagen and others, we have also been examining the impact of light and dark on welfare in broilers. We have indentified the importance of dark exposure in reducing mortality, leg defects, improving growth, circadian rhythms and impact of behaviour. We have continued on from the original project to now examining the importance of age of light program initiation, patterns of darkness, and light intensity.

24 This project has been funded by a number of groups, including SCIDF and Alberta Chicken Producers. The project has helped to identify the problem conditions that can exist on poultry transport vehicles which can certainly impact poultry welfare. This work has really helped to understand the impact that cold temperatures have on transported birds.

25 The importance of educating the public, especially kids, on what we do is so important. This is being done, and FACS is an important part of this for all livestock species. Tennille Knezacek has also been vigilant in this work, and you can see her, and others in the photo on slide 25. It is also important for the public to see and meet the people who raise their food, so for producers to be involved in education in some way would be outstanding.

26 What can we do? Likely every person in this room can have some impact on the animal welfare debate through improving the public’s perception of our industry. For farms, audits or no audits, basic management skills do improve welfare. This is just a list of some of the issues.

Air quality – a producer is likely in the barn for a few hours a day, but birds are exposed to that environment for their whole lives. If ammonia levels for example are too high, respiratory disease, skin burns etc can result.

Crowded birds are stressed birds, and this can increase disease incidence, increase scratching and bruising etc.

Stockmanship is important, because poor stockmen are also a stress to birds. Handling, noise level, speed of motion, all impact bird welfare.

Feed and water quality are always important, and feed companies are more than willing to help with this issue.

Lighting programs for broilers impact many aspects of welfare, including leg defects and gait score. Since these two measuring techniques are to be used in processor auditing, it is vitally important to use a lighting program that includes darkness.

Disease awareness and biosecurity speak for themselves.

Transportation – as listed in the audit information, the maximum level of DOA’s was listed at ½%. The general public will think this level is too high, and will continue to push this level to even lower values. Continued research into improvements is vital.

Euthanasia for laying hens is also important, and systems that are effective should be used. For example, gas stunning can be used, but only if done properly. Tanks should not leak, gas levels must be brought to appropriate concentrations if the welfare of the bird is not impacted.

27 So lets get back to the title.

There are things that we can do. Respect the audit system that are in place – both those from the feather boards and those from food supplier companies. Continue our research of areas that impact welfare. We can continue to do more education of the general public on our industry, and be ready to answer questions when asked, not hide the issues.

Finally, we always should ensure we are doing everything….