Ag-gag laws make matters worse for hogs

By: Vicki Burns and Brittany Semeniuk

Winnipeg Free Press - OPINION

Sows confined to steel "gestation crates," a common practise in the industry.

"Ag-gag" legislation is silently sweeping across the nation, and both Hog Watch Manitoba and the Winnipeg Humane Society have serious concerns. The term "ag-gag" refers to any piece of legislation which stifles the ability of concerned civilians to document and report animal cruelty and abuse inflicted upon farm animals.

On March 10, the Manitoba government publicly released Bill 62 and Bill 63, which seek to make it illegal for Manitobans to not only document farm animals during transportation, but to bear witness to all livestock (including horses) in transport trucks, production facilities and slaughterhouses.

Factory-style hog barns that are dominating the hog industry now are a far cry from the family farms that many of the public still envision. The pigs are never outside, but are constantly confined in large facilities with slatted floors, through which their urine and feces fall to pits below. The toxic fumes, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide emanating from the pits will suffocate the animals within a couple of hours if the ventilation systems fail.

The imminent danger of ag-gag legislation being passed in this province means these Manitoban pigs will have no one advocating for their welfare. There will be no way for Canadian consumers to know of the inhumane conditions these pigs endure. Instead, the general public will be at the mercy of the industry’s secretive treatment of farm animals.

In addition to the above legislation, the two groups have learned that Canadian Hog Producers plan to delay the deadline for getting rid of gestation stalls in hog barns. The industry deems gestation stalls as a completely humane and acceptable way to confine sows, even though the animals are so severely restricted that they can take only a step or two forward or backward.

According to the Code of Practice for Pigs, hog producers were previously mandated to replace their intensive confinement systems (gestation stalls) with open housing systems by 2024. This agreement was reached in 2014, which will have given producers 10 years to make this change. However, this deadline is now at risk of being extended to 2029, allowing sows to remain in the cruel, restrictive gestation crates for an additional five years.

Gestation stalls are one of the worst examples of the industrialization of animal agriculture. They are metal crates whose dimensions are two metres by 0.6 metres, in which the female pigs (sows) are housed from the age of six months until they are culled at around two years of age. The sows are only moved out of those stalls a few days before they give birth, at which point they are transferred to farrowing stalls that have the same size restrictions for the sow, but have some room around the edges for the piglets to move around.

Sows spend their entire lives having to eat, sleep and relieve themselves in the same mind-numbing tiny space, with no ability to turn around or even walk.

The use of these stalls is not only inhumane, but contributes to the concentration of thousands of animals in small spaces producing vast amounts of manure that is then applied to nearby land. Manitoba claims the dubious distinction of having the highest number of pigs per farm, 5,563 — more than double the next highest in Quebec, at 2,350.

Many other countries around the world have already stopped the use of gestation stalls, including the EU, the UK and Australia. It is long past time for Canada to follow suit and stop this inhumane practice, and for Canadians to vehemently oppose ag-gag legislation within Manitoba.

The Winnipeg Humane Society and Hog Watch Manitoba urge supporters to contact their MLAs and demand that they oppose the proposed ag-gag legislation becoming law in Manitoba.

Vicki Burns is a member of the Hog Watch Manitoba steering committee and Brittany Semeniuk is an animal welfare consultant with the Winnipeg Humane Society.

The Science world mourns the loss of David Schindler, the Scientific Giant Who Defended Fresh Water

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David Schindler. Photo credit - Science Magazine.

Among the world’s greatest ecologists, his boreal research has touched all of our lives. Story here.

Do ethics matter? Apparently, in the murky world of industrial livestock, not so much...

What makes our industrial livestock sector tick? A sincere desire to feed a hungry world? A commitment to do so in a way that doesn't damage Earth's delicate life support systems? A devotion to the humane treatment of animals? An innate duty to produce a product that's safe for all of us to eat? Or are there darker forces at play?

by Larry Powell

Photo credit - FAO

Flying in the face of warnings from the world’s top medical authorities, intensive livestock producers, from Manitoba to Manchuria, continue to give enormous amounts of antibiotics to their herds.

This overuse (sometimes in humans, but overwhelmingly in animals raised for food) is contributing to the growth of “antimicrobial resistance” or AMR. These are “superbugs” which can no longer be controlled by the best, front-line antibiotics we can throw at them. 

Many of these “miracle drugs,” are critical in the treatment of deadly human infections. Few, if any alternatives are available. And, partly because hardly any new ones are being produced, AMR is now widely  recognized as a world health crisis.

Thousands of Canadians are already dying each year as a direct result of AMR. And, if nothing is done (and nothing is), hundreds of thousands of citizens of this country, and tens of millions worldwide, will succumb by mid-century. This grim expectation has prompted some observers to call AMR, “the other pandemic.” 

So why does this industry press ahead with such outrageous behaviour? 

Is it for the benefit of their customers, who buy and eat the meat produced in these factories? Hardly. It's so they can fatten their animals up faster, ward off disease and keep them alive long enough to reach market weight, be slaughtered and find their way onto our dinner plates. 

Is this supermarket meat cheaper than that produced in organic, free-range or "re-generative" operations?

Of course not! After taking into account the lower price you may pay at the counter, just think about the frequency with which these industrial producers are at the public trough, sopping up taxpayer subsidies. 

Not to mention the terrible price we are all paying for the environmental degradation they cause. 

Sadly, the "Progressive" Conservative Government of Brian Pallister in the Canadian province of Manitoba, is now firmly ensconced, not as a fair-minded regulator, enforcing enlightened rules that actually protect you and me from the excesses of this industry, but as its enabler. Under the preposterous guise of “reducing red tape,” it's been busily scrapping those regulations so that commerce can have its way. 

Never mind that many rural Manitobans (“real farmers,” critics might  say) simply don't want giant hog factories on their doorsteps. Yet, they're having their wishes - and those of their duly elected local councils - overturned by "laissez-faire," anti-democratic, disaster-capitalists who occupy the halls of power in Winnipeg.  

 

Meanwhile, Canada's swine producers are on the verge of breaking a long-standing promise to stop using “gestation crates” by 2024 - three years from now. These steel “torture chambers” have, since the dawn of the factory farm, confined pregnant sows to such tiny quarters they’re unable to fulfill normal instincts to forage or explore and often go mad. 

In 2014, “The National Farm Animal Care Council” proclaimed, giving more freedom to the animals than the crates provide, actually made scientific sense. But, as the dollar cost of doing away with them dawned on the industry, no longer is it either sensible or scientific. So millions of helpless animals will have to wait, not four, but eight more years before they might see even a modicum of relief from a miserable existence - and even then, only if the industry keeps its promise this time! 

Meanwhile, the Pallister government will soon pass laws making it illegal for whistleblowers to see first hand what happens behind the walls of “Big Pig Inc.” It's all under the preposterous guise of protecting these “farms” from diseases which protesters - who might want to expose the transgressions documented here - might “track in” on their boots! So, in an effort to make this all go away, the Government is rushing to impose Draconian rules to shield the industry from any pesky revelations which might embarrass them. 

Because of their crowded, intensive and confined nature, factory barns themselves are already “petrie dishes” (aka “the cruise ships of the terrestrial world”) for a plethora of animal diseases. This legislation is nothing but a rush by this government (probably at the behest of industry) to mimic repressive “ag-gag” laws elsewhere. These have proven to be both an affront to democracy and an assault on freedom of the press.

Then there’s “CP Foods” (CPF), the biggest conglomerate of its kind you’ve never heard of. It took over controlling interest in HyLife a couple of years ago. HyLife is that made-in-Manitoba company which is now Canada’s largest pork-processor. 

Six years ago, the Guardian revealed that CPF (A Thai-based company), was buying fishmeal from suppliers who either owned, operated or bought from Asian fishing boats manned by slaves. 

Several slaves who escaped told the newspaper tales of being beaten, tortured, drugged and starved, sometimes for years.They had also witnessed many of their comrades being executed and dumped at sea. One was reportedly tied to four boats and torn apart, limb-from-limb. 

Incredibly, CP Foods admitted that slave labour was part of its supply chain!

Will these new corporate citizens now in our midst be "greasing the wheels" of government with hefty donations to the Conservative Party of Manitoba, as three founders of HyLife were doing for many years before?

Stay tuned!

And surely these new players on the block will feel entitled to the same kind of generous subsidies the Government has been bestowing  on the rest of the industry for so long - from the pockets of hard-working Manitobans, of course!

-30-

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PHOTO: JEFFREY GLASSBERG/NORTH AMERICAN BUTTERFLY ASSOCIATION

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Bottlenose dolphin. A NOAA photo.

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WHAT'S IN A PROMISE? The end of gestation crates in Canada was scheduled for 2024. Now, it’s 2029.

Factory Farm Collective   

A sow in a steel crate. If pigs could talk.

In 2014, the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) updated their industry guidelines for pig welfare and recommended that the pork industry end the use of gestation crates (or sow stalls) by 2024. This statement is taken from NFACC’s website under the heading, What The Science Says: Here.

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Manitoba hog farmers pledge sow stall phase-out. 

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Will the world’s addiction to industrial livestock production bring an end to the age of the “miracle drug?”

by Larry Powell - *Hog Watch Manitoba 

(Note: Asterisks link to references at bottom.)

A pork processing plant in Neepawa, MB. Photo credit - HyLifeFoods.

Antibiotics have been bestowing a world of good on the human condition ever since Alexander Fleming discovered the most famous one - penicillin - almost a century ago. Thanks to their ability to counter deadly infections, millions of lives have been saved -  truly a turning point in the history of mankind.

But, for some years now, clouds have been gathering. Numerous agencies, from the **World Health Organization (WHO) to our own ***Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), have been sounding similar alarm bells. All the wondrous benefits inherent in these life-saving medications may already be in jeopardy. 

As PHAC states on its website, “There’s increasing evidence that the use of antimicrobial agents in veterinary medicine and livestock production is an important contributing factor in the emergence of bacteria in people which have grown resistant to these medications.” 

It’s officially called “antimicrobial resistance,” or AMR. And it’s getting worse. Overuse spurs the growth of “superbugs,” which can then be transferred to people who eat the treated meat. As a result, fewer and fewer of the best drugs we can throw at them, are working, even on infections once considered routine. 

Almost eighty percent of antibiotics sold in Canada are being given to livestock. And livestock in this country have, for some time, outnumbered people by about twenty-to-one. 

One estimate from the UN’s  ****Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states - agriculture, globally - could be using more than 240,000 tonnes, yearly. (Due to spotty data collection, it’s a rough estimate, only.)

Photo credit - FAO.

*****The O’ Neill report commissioned by the UK government in 2014, predicted that, by 2050, AMR will claim ten million lives a year, more than cancer itself. As the Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, stated flatly, “If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine"

And, as if we needed more convincing, here’s how the WHO puts it. 

“If AMR isn’t contained, medical procedures such as caesarean sections, hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, organ transplantation, malaria and tuberculosis and even childbirth will become increasingly risky.” 

What about Canada?

In a peer-reviewed study just over a year ago, ******the Council of Canadian Academies revealed - more than five thousand Canadians had already died as a direct result of AMR in 2018. Twenty-six percent of infections then, were already resistant. And if that number rises to 40% by 2015 (considered “highly plausible”), so, too will the death toll - to almost 400 thousand.

Hog Watch, therefore wants to know, why were hog producers on the Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) actually feeding more antibiotics to their herds in 2018 than they were the year before? (Latest figs. available.) 

And how were their counterparts in the east (ON & PQ), able to feed less over that same period?

This information is confirmed in the 2018 annual report of *******“CIPARS,” an obscure federal surveillance program.  

Here’s what the WHO recommends in this regard. 

“Simply stop giving animals such medications altogether, whether to promote growth or prevent disease. Healthy animals should only be treated if disease is diagnosed elsewhere in the same herd. And, even while treating animals already sick, only medications not considered critical for the treatment of human infections, should be used.”

Despite all this, producers across Canada were still giving nineteen different antibiotics, considered important in the treatment of human infections, to their herds. And they weren’t given just to treat diseases after an outbreak, but to prevent disease and promote growth (to make their animals grow faster), too.  

While feeding more in 2018, there was no significant difference in the amount of antibiotics those prairie producers injected into their herds from the year before. 

However, one of those injectibles, ceftiofur, is of particular concern. Even though it isn’t given to people, just animals, it’s still listed as “very highly important.” That’s because it could well be transferring harmful resistance to other drugs in its class which are critical as human medications.

These are called “third-generation cephalosporins.” They’re considered medications of “last resort” in the treatment of ailments such as gonorrhoea. Yet, they’re already beginning to fail in several countries. The incidence of this sexually-transmitted disease has grown rapidly in Canada in recent years, reaching nearly 30,000 cases in 2017. This has raised fears that, one day soon, gonorrhoea will become incurable.

The poultry sector sets an example.

In 2014, chicken and turkey producers in Canada voluntarily stopped using drugs of most importance in treating human infections on their flocks. CIPARS reports, except for a small increase in BC, “This appears to be reducing antimicrobial resistance.” 

On the other hand, some “isolates” (bacterial samples) taken from sick pigs “showed resistance to all seven classes of antimicrobials tested.”

Could the dominant method of producing livestock here and around the world actually contribute to the problem?

Here’s what the then Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan had to say in a major address on this topic some seven years ago.

“The industrialization of food production is an especially worrisome trend. Confined animal feeding operations are not farms any more. They’re protein factories with multiple hazards for health and the environment. These hazards come from the crowding of large numbers of animals in very small spaces, the stressful conditions that promote disease, the large quantities of dangerous waste, the need for frequent human contact with the animals.” 

(Hog Watch MB supports group housing for breeding sows and straw-based housing for all pigs.)

And, because there’s already evidence that resistance may be spreading through livestock waste, we’re also calling for the phaseout, over the next decade, of all liquid hog manure applications on food crops as a fertilizer.

Missing from the equation - Transparency and accountability 

About six weeks ago,  Hog Watch MB emailed ******Manitoba Pork, the organization representing the hog industry in this province, for input into these issues. At this writing, it hasn’t responded. 

This is consistent with a culture of secrecy which has prevailed inside this very large and controversial industry for years. 

According to CIPARS, here’s how the hog industry provides it with data on antibiotic usage. “To preserve the anonymity of participating producers, herd veterinarians collected the samples and data and submitted coded information to PHAC. In the case of corporate herds, confidentiality was ensured through a single corporate herd code for all corporate veterinarians, thus preventing a corporate veterinarian from being associated with a specific herd and protecting anonymity.” 

Will this culture of secrecy help or hinder efforts to bring overuse under control?

Since Dec. 2018, it has actually been an infraction under the Food and Drug Act, for producers to give medically-important drugs to their herds, without a prescription from a veterinarian. It’s not believed any violations have been reported, so far.

On the face of it, this would appear to offer the industry plenty of "wiggle room." It is, after all, far from an outright ban.

All of this, we believe, presents a golden opportunity for the Pallister Government to assure Manitobans that usage in this province isn’t still heading in the wrong direction. 

While there’s still a place for antibiotic use in agriculture, it must surely be done in ways that are more responsible and transparent than this.   

We challenge this Government - Prove that you can be more than just a cheerleader for industry and be a responsible and transparent regulator, instead.

This is an important health issue. And health, after all is a provincial responsibility.

REFERENCES

*What is Hog Watch Manitoba?

Hog Watch Manitoba is a non-profit coalition of environmentalists, farmers, friends of animals, social justice advocates, trade unions and scientists. We are promoting a hog industry in Manitoba that is ethically, environmentally and economically sustainable.

**World Health Organization - “Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals!”

***Public Health Agency of Canada.

****Food & Agriculture Organizaton

*****The O’Neill Report

******The Council of Canadian Academies - “When Antibiotics Fail.”

*******The Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS), keeps track of trends in antibiotic usage and the degree to which resistances are developing. Run by the Public Health Agency of Canada, it also works to make sure that these medications, many critical to the health of both animals and humans, are preserved.

********EMAIL TO MANITOBA PORK

INPUT REQUESTED

Yahoo/

Sent

Larry Powell <planetwatch1@yahoo.ca>

To:

info@manitobapork.com

Wed., Jan. 6 at 7:36 p.m.

Dear Manitoba Pork,

I'm attaching a story now published on my blog. I would invite your input. 

Why did antibiotic use in your industry increase in the time span mentioned?

What has happened with such usage in your industry since 2018?

Do you accept the concerns of medical experts over antibiotic use in livestock?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Larry Powell

SHOAL LAKE, MB

Please visit: Planet in Peril - where science gets respect. 

AMR MB HOGS

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RELATED:

DESPITE LONG-STANDING AND WIDESPREAD WARNINGS OF THE DANGERS, HOG PRODUCERS ON THE CANADIAN PRAIRIES WERE STILL FEEDING MORE ANTIBIOTICS TO THEIR PIGS IN 2018 THAN THEY DID THE YEAR BEFORE. (LATEST FIGS. AVAILABLE.)