Editorial: On your watch

The recent images from poultry operations in B.C.’s Fraser Valley are fresh in the minds of many Canadians. That’s not good news for the livestock sector. What they’ve revealed is unflattering, shocking and immoral. Contract ‘chicken catchers’ were caught on video stomping on birds, simulating sex acts on them and ripping limbs from living animals.

(Video screengrab for MercyForAnimals.org)

Workers fired following chicken abuse video

CNS Canada — A British Columbia company tied to nationally broadcast footage of livestock abuse has laid off five workers, according to a statement from the organization Tuesday. The animal rights and vegan advocacy group responsible for capturing the video says that’s not enough, and is pursuing legal action. Employees at a Vancouver-area chicken farm


chickens

Activist misrepresentations slammed by chicken farmers

Chicken Farmers of Canada says video purported to be of Canadian barns 
appears to be recycled footage from elsewhere

Chicken Farmers of Canada has hit back at an anti-animal agriculture group’s “outrageous and unsubstantiated claims” about brutal practices on poultry farms across the country. At issue is a video distributed by Mercy for Animals, a U.S.-based group that purports to show abuse on chicken on Canadian farms. “We believe that this video footage isn’t

A worker at Chilliwack Cattle Sales is shown kicking a dairy cow in the head in covert video from 2014. (Mercy For Animals via Youtube)

Major dairy farm gets six-figure fines in cruelty case

British Columbia’s largest dairy farm has been slapped with a reported $300,000 in fines after entering guilty pleas to charges of animal cruelty, stemming from covert video shot in 2014. Chilliwack Cattle Sales (CCS) and co-owner Wesley Kooyman were convicted Friday in Provincial Court over violations of the province’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.



Social licence requires animal welfare

Social licence requires animal welfare

Don’t expect cows to be sleeping at the foot of the bed any time soon, 
but farm animals are being extended new welfare consideration

It was an uncomfortable moment for producers at the annual Manitoba Dairy Conference, held in Winnipeg earlier this month. It was an image of downer cows, about to be shot at an American slaughter plant, displayed during a presentation by Jennifer Walker to bring home the message that just because something has become routine, doesn’t



Ont. poultry packer back under hidden-camera spotlight

Canada’s biggest poultry processor is back under animal welfare activists’ scrutiny with hidden-camera footage alleging more mishandling of birds at one of its packing plants. Maple Lodge Farms, which in September 2013 was convicted under the federal Health of Animals Act over birds’ exposure to cold weather during transport, said Saturday it’s paying “prompt attention”


New ad campaign promotes vegan lifestyle

An animal rights group that made headlines last year with an undercover video of a Manitoba hog barn is now urging Canadians to think of farm animals as pets and stop eating meat. “Pigs, cows, and chickens are remarkable beings just like the animals we shower with affection and consider family,” said Stephane Perrais, director

Mixed messages on gestation stalls

The head of Manitoba Pork Council says his group hasn’t pledged to move away from sow stalls after all

Manitoba hog producers should dig in their heels and say no to phasing out gestation stalls. That was the message Rick Berman brought to the Manitoba Pork Council’s annual general meeting last week, in which he urged producers to go on the offensive against “animal rights lunatics.” “Get your head around the fact you’re in