The fines were levied against Sofina Foods and Elite Farm Services after the two companies pled guilty to two counts each of Health of Animals Regulations violations on Dec. 14 in B.C. Provincial Court in New Westminster.

The two companies were each also sentenced to three years’ probation, requiring “increased employee training and third-party audits,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a release Jan. 17.

The charges stated that between May 10 and June 8, 2017, Elite and Sofina “unlawfully loaded or caused to be loaded an animal (chickens) in a way likely to cause injury or undue suffering to them,” CFIA said.

The charges to which the two companies pled guilty were four on a list of 38 laid against them and Elite president Dwayne Dueck in November 2018 following a CFIA investigation. All remaining charges against the two companies and Dueck, including charges of “unlawfully beat(ing)” animals, were stayed following their sentencing hearing.

The charges came after the release of hidden-camera footage of employees at a Vancouver-area chicken farm, filmed by a volunteer for Toronto-based Mercy for Animals. The footage was broadcast on CTV News and posted on YouTube in June 2017.

The video showed workers throwing birds against crates, slamming them on the ground, slapping and stomping on birds and using them to simulate sexual acts. It also showed some of the abuse happening in front of a supervisor. Five employees, including a supervisor, were fired shortly after the footage aired.

“We are sickened with the footage and want to ensure all our suppliers and producers that this is not reflective of who we are, our fundamental beliefs or behaviour we accept from our employees. We do not condone or tolerate animal abuse,” Dueck said in a statement at the time.

Markham, Ont.-based Sofina echoed those statements at the time, saying it was “appalled and extremely shocked by the video footage we saw of a few of our supplier’s employees displaying disturbing and unacceptable behaviours that (Sofina) does not in any way tolerate or condone.”

“This outcome represents huge progress for farmed animals,” Mercy for Animals said in a separate statement after the companies’ guilty pleas and sentencing. “Companies and their owners are responsible for the animals in their care, and they should be held accountable when animals are mistreated.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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J+F is paying only half of the $256.5 million fines levied due to settlements made with Brazilian authorities three years ago (figures in US$ except where noted). Then, J+F paid a record-setting 10.3 billion-real (C$2.42 billion) fine in Brazil for its role in corruption scandals that severely weakened then-president Michel Temer.

In Brazil, its top executives have admitted to bribing more than 1,900 politicians to advance their business interests — especially JBS’s expansion — and secure low-cost financing from state-run banks.

Shares of JBS rose more than nine per cent in late Sao Paulo trading following announcement of the agreement in the United States, which investors hope will allow the company to turn the page on the sprawling corruption scandal.

A U.S. charging document said that between 2005 and 2017 the company conspired to bribe officials to secure financing and “equity transactions” from state-controlled banks BNDES and Caixa Economica Federal, as well as Petros, the pension fund for employees of state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

The bribes J+F executives paid to high-level government officials exceeded $150 million, which generated $178 million in profit for the company, U.S. prosecutors said.

One Brazilian official with “significant influence” over BNDES ensured that the development bank bought some $2 billion in debentures in December 2009, shortly after JBS made a U.S. acquisition, according to the plea deal.

The agreement did not name Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., but the timeline appears to coincide with JBS’s purchase of the U.S. poultry company. On Wednesday, Pilgrim’s Pride said it would pay a $110.5 million fine after striking an unrelated plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department over price fixing charges on chicken products.

In another episode, a J+F executive bought a $1.5 million New York City apartment through a shell company, then transferred it to a Brazilian official who ensured that Petros did a deal beneficial to J+F, the court documents show.

The documents said two J+F executives and five Brazilian government officials were part of the “pay-to-play” scheme. They did not disclose names.

Joesley Batista, who steered JBS from a Brazilian beef processing firm to a global food conglomerate, and his brother Wesley were arrested in 2017 on obstruction of justice and insider trading charges. They were released in 2018.

Lucio Martins, director of compliance at J+F, which in addition to JBS has investments in pulp paper, cosmetics, energy, media and finance, pleaded guilty to violations of the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practices Act on behalf of the company in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn via video conference.

J+F also agreed on Wednesday to pay $27 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges related to the bribery scheme.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jody Godoy in New York and Sabrina Valle in Rio de Janeiro.

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The Security From Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, introduced Monday by Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman, is expected to “address the unique risks and challenges associated with trespass onto a farm or into a food processing facility.”

The province, in a release, cited the “risks trespassers pose to the safety of farmers, their families and employees” as well as the risks of exposing farm animals to stress and disease, and of “introducing contaminants into our food supply.”

The bill would up the ante for trespassing on farms by setting fines of up to $15,000 for a first offence and $25,000 for subsequent offences, compared to the $10,000 maximum under the province’s Trespass to Property Act. It would also lay out “aggravating factors,” allowing a court to consider factors “that might justify an increased fine.”

The bill would also allow courts to order restitution for damages in certain specific circumstances, such as damage to a farmer’s livestock or from theft, the province said.

It also calls for “explicit prior consent” to be granted for someone to access an “animal protection zone” on a farm or food processing facility. Such consent would be invalid, the province said, if it was “obtained under duress or false pretenses.”

The new legislation would define animal protection zones to be covered by the increased fines and controls, Hardeman told Farmtario’s John Greig on Monday.

For example, he said, someone who drives across a farm in a snowmobile without permission in the winter could face charges under the Trespass to Property Act, but a person who enters a barn without permission could be charged under the new act.

Exemptions would allow for municipal bylaw officers, police and provincial animal protection officers to access farm property, the province said.

Off-farm, the bill also proposes to prohibit “stopping, hindering, obstructing or interfering with a motor vehicle transporting farm animals” and “interacting with farm animals being transported by a motor vehicle without explicit prior consent.”

The bill is also expected to boost legal protections for farmers against civil liability in cases where people are hurt while trespassing.

The province’s legislation follows similar moves in Alberta to boost penalties for on-farm trespass, after animal rights activists in both provinces took their protests onto farm property.

It also follows a 2017 court case in which charges were dismissed against an activist who gave what she said was water from a bottle to pigs through vents in the walls of a stock trailer en route to a Burlington, Ont. packing plant.

“Obviously a lot of concern has been expressed about safety on the farm. We decided we should take action on that and we should find a way to make sure people feel safe and secure on their farms,” Hardeman told Farmtario.

“We appreciate the support of the Ontario government in taking the concerns of Ontario livestock and poultry farmers seriously and acting swiftly to address them,” Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie said Monday in the province’s release.

Biosecurity measures, he said, are put in place “to protect against unwanted diseases as well as stress on our farm animals.”

Allan Thompson, chair of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA), said Monday the organization “is concerned about trespass activities on private farm properties that pose a safety risk to the public, farm families and animals. We appreciate this effort to provide new tools to help keep our communities safe.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Speaking Thursday at the Jumbo Valley colony near Fort Macleod, Premier Jason Kenney, Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer and Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen pledged in the next legislative session to introduce rules “designed to punish illegal protestors who invade farms, and to discourage such dangerous activity.”

Kenney said he has asked Dreeshen and Schweitzer “to consider all options, including legislation, to protect livestock producers’ operations and their families from harassment,” and more details would be available “in the weeks to come.”

The provincial legislative assembly resumes sitting Tuesday morning (Oct. 8).

For one example, Kenney said, the government proposes to strengthen the province’s Petty Trespass Act to “specifically address trespass on agricultural land.”

For individuals, the province said, the proposals include fines of up to $10,000 for a first offence and up to $25,000 for subsequent offences and imprisonment of up to six months.

Organizations involved in such actions — groups which Schweitzer described Thursday as “the organizations perpetrating this, organizing it, facilitating it” — would face fines of up to $200,000.

Another proposal calls for amendments to the provincial Animal Health Act, under which farmers affected by “biosecurity breaches due to unlawful entry” could recover their costs.

That proposal, Dreeshen said, calls for any trespassers or protesters who are found to be breaching biosecurity protocols to be fined $15,000 for first offences, then $30,000 plus imprisonment of up to one year for repeat offences.

The Provincial Offences Procedure Act would also be amended, the ministers said, to increase the maximum amount of compensation awarded by the court from $25,000 to $100,000.

Kenney on Thursday also pledged the appointment of a dedicated provincial prosecutor for agricultural offenses “to ensure that they are properly pursued.”

On a related note, Kenney also said the province would ensure “legal repercussions for individuals who misrepresent themselves in order to gain access to farms and capture images to discredit operators.”

“Farmers shouldn’t have to worry about people entering their workplace, interfering with their lives, or threatening the health of their animals,” Dreeshen said. The turkey barn incident, he added, “made it clear our farmers need stronger protection.”

Mark Tchetter of Jumbo Valley, in the province’s release, said Thursday’s announcement “provides farmers further clarity on what a measured response from the legal system will look like.”

Farmers, he said, will now have “a better understanding of what government is willing to do if situations like this arise in the future.”

‘Outraged’

Toronto-based animal law organization Animal Justice, in a separate release Thursday, described Alberta’s proposed fines as “astronomical” and warned that the proposed law on capturing images would “target whistleblowing employees who record and expose animal abuse on farms.”

The group said Alberta’s proposed new legislation “appears to share many elements of so-called ‘ag gag’ laws, passed in some states, that criminalize whistleblowers who expose animal cruelty on farms.” Such laws, the group said, have been struck down as unconstitutional in “multiple” states.

The group also noted the province’s plans for a prosecutor “to target animal advocates, even though there is no special prosecutor dedicated to prosecuting animal cruelty offences.”

“Instead of this unprecedented crackdown on compassionate citizens, Alberta should create laws to protect farmed animals from abuse and suffering,” Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk said in that group’s release.

Besides, the group said, “trespassing on a farm or elsewhere is already an offence, and anyone engaged in trespassing can be charged.”

Citizens, Labchuk said, “are rightfully outraged that governments have failed to police animal welfare conditions in the farm industry.”

That said, at least one activist involved in the Jumbo Valley event was quoted last month in Alberta Farmer as saying the occupying group in the turkey barn was “not advocating for better conditions or a better way of doing the wrong thing.”

Kenney, at Thursday’s event, disagreed with any characterization of the Jumbo Valley incident as a protest.

“If you do a protest, you hold a bunch of signs on public property,” he said. “This was an illegal invasion of private property. This was a dangerous act of trespassing… we should not dignify this by calling it some kind of an act of legitimate protest.

“If people in the public have legitimate concerns about animal health and safety or potential violations of food safety and agricultural regulations, we encourage them to go to the appropriate authorities.”

As for the incident last month at Jumbo Valley, Schweitzer said Thursday he didn’t have any further information yet regarding any possible charges, but added the province is working closely with RCMP and other police forces in Alberta and “it’s for them to investigate right now.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Farmers form a key base of support for right-wing firebrand Bolsonaro who since taking office Jan. 1 has placed pro-agribusiness policies at the center of his agenda. Activists warn his government’s positions would strip away protections for the environment, the Amazon rainforest and indigenous peoples.

Reservation land covering roughly 12 per cent of Brazil’s territory is currently off limits for commercial farming.

“They could plant there … and maybe have income for their community,” Dias told reporters. “They cannot do this today. That needs to be changed in Congress.”

Reservations should still be required to preserve a minimum percentage of native vegetation, as all farmers currently are, she said.

Bolsonaro has given control over indigenous land designations to the agriculture ministry, after arguing on the campaign trail that no new indigenous reservations should be created. But Dias struck a more moderate tone, saying Bolsonaro did not favour new reservations in areas that have long been settled by farmers.

“Small farmers that have been there 50 years and have deeds issued by the state or federal government, if you kick them out, there aren’t conditions there for indigenous people to hunt and fish and have their lives,” she said in a press briefing.

“When the president says he doesn’t want more demarcations, he’s talking about this type of contested areas.”

But the Amazon deserves completely different treatment, and tribes with little contact with the outside world should be protected, she said, a position that is shared by Brazil’s new rights minister who will be responsible for indigenous affairs.

Bolsonaro has suggested Brazil may exit the Paris Agreement on climate change and appointed a foreign minister who calls global warming a leftist fabrication. But Dias said she is fine with staying in the accord, as the country is on track to meet its climate change goals.

As for a campaign promise to end the “industry” of environmental fines, Dias told Reuters prior to the briefing that Brazil must end “indiscriminate” fines levied by multiple agencies without working with the farmers to resolve misunderstandings.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jake Spring and Anthony Boadle.

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The probes into whether inspection procedures were eased in favour of certain unnamed companies comes two months after the country’s meatpacking industry was rocked by a wide-ranging investigation into alleged corruption and bribes targeting food sanitation inspectors.

In one of the two newly launched probes, police are investigating an alleged scheme aimed at delaying or cancelling fines in which about three million reais (C$1.3 million) changed hands between 2010 and 2016, they said in a statement.

Police said they would arrest 10 people, detain 16 for questioning and serve 36 search-and-seizure warrants in the states of Tocantins, Para, Sao Paulo and Pernambuco related to the allegations. They did not name specific targets.

The federal police said they are also separately probing improper protection of food companies as well as persecution of government food inspectors through disciplinary procedures and unfounded removals.

Several supervisors in the Agriculture Ministry’s arm in the southern state of Santa Catarina have been removed from their jobs as part of the probe, which found evidence that unnamed companies imported chemically adulterated fish into the Brazilian market without adequate oversight.

The operation is the latest corruption probe ensnaring big companies and senior officials in Latin America’s largest economy.

— Reporting for Reuters by Pedro Fonseca; writing by Bruno Federowski and Christian Plumb.

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The bill approved by the Oklahoma Senate on Tuesday and already approved in the House increases fines for cattle theft and the number of felony counts that can be brought.

State law currently says the penalty for livestock theft is jail or a fine, but the legislation would allow for both penalties in a single case. It also allows prosecutors to assign a felony charge for each animal stolen.

“If a thief steals eight head of cattle, in the past he was charged with one felony count,” said Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association executive vice-president Michael Kelsey.

The crime has evolved from rustlers on horseback driving their plunder across the range, often portrayed in the early 1960s U.S. TV program Rawhide, to modern-day cowboys using pickup trucks and trailers to make off with cattle.

The recent rise in rustling is driven by the spread of heroin and methamphetamines to rural areas, an issue that has dogged states across the nation. In Oklahoma and neighbouring Texas, lonesome cattle grazing on thousand-acre ranches that can fetch about $1,000 to $3,000 at market are proving to be easy targets for rustlers on the down and out (all figures US$).

Jail time for the theft of livestock remains at three to 10 years. Those convicted of livestock theft would be fined in an amount that is three times the value of animals and machinery stolen, capping out at $500,000.

The bill now heads to Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican.

“Now, district attorneys have the option to seek eight felony counts. If the district attorney is faced with a hardened criminal, he can really throw the book at him,” Kelsey said.

Among Oklahoma cattle thieves, about 75 per cent are doing so to feed drug addictions, most often to methamphetamines, according to Jerry Flowers, chief agent for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture’s Investigative Services, a specialized units farm crimes.

Cattle theft data from the department showed that reported cattle thefts more than doubled in 2014 from the previous year, due in large part to rampant methamphetamine use and addiction in rural areas.

— Reporting for Reuters by Heide Brandes; writing by Jon Herskovitz.

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