(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

New agency to handle Sask. animal welfare enforcement

Saskatchewan’s animal protection officers will start Wednesday with a new not-for-profit agency handling animal welfare enforcement work in the province. The provincial agriculture department on Thursday announced a two-year, $610,000-per-year agreement to fund investigative services provided by Animal Protection Services of Saskatchewan, effective April 1. A new toll-free phone number, 1-844-382-0002, will be in place

Temple Grandin

Fight the video cameras with video cameras: Temple Grandin

Famed animal welfare advocate says well-run operations can welcome public scrutiny

Fixing the slaughter plants was easy,” Temple Grandin told the 2015 annual meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). “But now I see problems that we are going to have to fix at the farm: lame dairy cows, emaciated dairy cows because somebody let them go too long, animal production to the point we


measuring stress on a horse using an infrared reader

New tool measures heat to understand animal stress

Infrared thermography provides a quick and non-invasive way to measure stress, 
and that has big implications for livestock producers

A new ‘eye’ on how animals respond to stressful situations is providing researchers with a valuable tool that could one day have a big impact on how livestock are treated. Infrared thermography — or IRT — can tell a lot of stories by measuring body heat in a specific area. Using a device that looks

Significant animal welfare issues found at Austin hog barn

It was more than two years ago that provincial officials had to shoot 1,300 hogs near Austin

No charges will be laid following a two-year investigation into circumstances leading to the mass euthanization of hogs at a barn near Austin in September 2012. A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Veterinarian said the case was handed over to Manitoba Justice last summer after a significant investigation, which included interviewing multiple witnesses.


British Columbia dairy farm confronts abuse allegations

The owners say they were unaware and are co-operating fully with an investigation

Allegations of animal abuse against eight employees of a B.C. dairy farm are under investigation by the provincial Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals after videos showing scenes of alleged mistreatment were released by a Toronto-based vegan organization opposed to livestock production. Jeff Kooyman, co-owner of the Chilliwack Cattle Company, said it is co-operating

Animal rights group welcomes commitment on veal crates

Crates are about to go packing, as three major grocery retailers confirm their support for an end to veal produced in individual pens

Three major grocery chains in Canada have confirmed they will no longer sell veal produced in confinement systems by 2018, but they aren’t crowing about it. Loblaw, Sobeys and Metro have made all made recent commitments to move away from veal raised in crates, but none made any formal announcement to mark the occasion. A


Man speaking.

Scientific claims won’t counter ethical questions about animal welfare

Pork producers can say that consumers don’t get it, that science is the basis for welfare and that castration doesn’t hurt, but the public won’t buy it — and that’s bad for business

If you’re a pork producer trying to convince someone your welfare practices are up to snuff, the last words you should pull out of your phrase book are “science” and “based.” Speaking to representatives of Manitoba’s pork industry during the annual Swine Seminar in Winnipeg, Dr. Tim Blackwell outlined the pitfalls and missteps that hurt

Consumer perceptions and attitudes about how animals are treated in agriculture increasingly influence what they buy, officials warn. photo:©thinkstock

Public pressure will continue on animal welfare

The sometimes arduous process of developing animal care codes is just the beginning, not the end goal

Within days of the wrap-up of this year’s National Farm Animal Care Council conference, news reports surfaced about a disturbing case of abusive treatment of layer chickens at two Alberta farms. The controversy over the secretly filmed scenes shown on CTV’s “W5” was a reminder of the “strong emotions surrounding animal abuse,” said Jackie Wepruk,


Animal care specialists urge producers to get the facts and do the right thing

Animal care specialists urge producers to get the facts and do the right thing

Producers urged to not “do anything you wouldn’t be willing to explain in front of a television camera

Opening up the barn doors to show how livestock are cared for might not make the public as sympathetic to producers as some would like to believe. “Educating people about what we do is not an automatic that they’re going to believe what we do is right,” Dr. Joseph Stookey, a professor at the Western

Photo: allan dawson

Animal rights groups applaud retailers’ move against gestation stalls

The Retail Council of Canada’s apparent plan to phase out gestation stalls 
won’t influence how the Manitoba Pork Council advises its producers

Manitoba Pork Council says a sweeping endorsement of updated sow housing practices, including phasing out gestation stalls by 2022, by the Retail Council of Canada won’t change how its producers raise their animals. “It really changes nothing in our position at all, a whole host of independent retailers, like Tim Hortons and like Walmart have