WE NEED CHANGE!
Every year, more than 700 million animals are slaughtered in Canada for food. But before that, they travel. They endure grueling journeys, often over long distances, from farms to auctions and feedlots, across borders... and finally to slaughterhouses.
Canada has regulations to ensure that the animals are transported humanely, but upon reviewing CFIA's inspection reports, we found that many, many animals are needlessly suffering and dying during transport in Canada.
It is my opinion that federal regulations are being violated and penalties are not being issued. In a single year, as many as 2-3 million animals die before they even make it to the slaughterhouse. Some freeze to death; others die from their injuries - the result of harsh transport conditions or rough handling. Some animals are left to suffer for days before they are finally put out of their misery.
There is only one CFIA animal inspector for every two million animals that are slaughtered annually which makes it impossible for the agency to properly enforce its own regulations and raises serious concerns for both the welfare of the animals and the safety of Canadas food supply.
WE NEED CHANGE!
I care very much about the treatment of animals. I would like to express concern about Canada's Health of Animals Regulations which seem to be both out-of-date and poorly enforced.
Animals too often suffer unnecessarily because of these weak regulations and lax enforcement. Parliamentarians were right to be concerned about the adequacy of our meat inspection system after the Listeriosis outbreak in 2008. Should we not be equally concerned about the number of veterinary inspectors assessing the condition of animals before slaughter? Serious thought should be given to both increasing the Canadian Food Inspection Agnecy's complement of animal health and veterinary inspectors and to strengthening Canada's regulations which govern the transport and slaughter of farm animals.
Transporting some live animals for long distances up to 40 hours increase the chance of disease which is then passed to the consumers. This is unacceptable.
For the sake of the animals and the safety of our food supply, its time Canada got serious about the welfare of those animals that are reared for food. I strongly encourage you, as a Member of Parliament, to start the movement on this issue
