Animal agriculture is under an ever-brighter spotlight.
Treatment of animals is a concentrated part of the focus as the general public takes more interest in the source and production of food.
Any investigation that reveals animal abuse raises national attention and outcry and chips away at the credibility that so many food producers have built over the years for responsible livestock production.
Animal welfare is much more than ensuring humane treatment. It also includes disease prevention and treatment, nutrition, environment, transport, slaughter, regulation and other interrelated factors.
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The field is rich with research possibilities that could protect and improve animal welfare and preserve the reputation of Canadians as responsible food animal producers.
It is why the federal government’s retreat from animal welfare research in recent years is disappointing.
In the early 1990s, Agriculture Canada was a major player in projects with that focus. Deep cuts in the late 1990s reduced its capacity, and within the past two years five of the eight remaining research positions related to animal welfare were cut.
Now the federal government is a minor player in the field, even though animal welfare relates directly to productivity and economic benefit to Canadian producers and is a factor in international trade deals.
Federal funding isn’t completely absent. For example, it makes up one-third of the National Farmed Animal Health and Welfare Council budget. It is telling, then, that the NFAWH concluded in a recent study that it had failed to communicate the importance of animal welfare research to the federal authorities.
With less federal funding available, producer groups turned to private companies to conduct needed research. Of necessity, most of these projects were short term and designed to address a specific problem.
There is much to be said for such private research. It achieves an agreed purpose and solidifies relationships between producers, the companies that serve them and the remaining few scientists who undertake projects with an animal welfare theme.
However, although short-term projects are helpful to the overall goal of animal welfare, they can lack credibility with the general public when outcomes favour the companies or suppliers who funded them.
Federal money is needed to address bigger projects that require longer study. Regulatory reforms for animal transport or an exploration of more humane slaughter methods are two examples that come to mind.
Transport is the most visible to the public, and slaughter elicits the most visceral response and concern.
“We feel that there is a legitimate role for public funding, for let’s say ‘public good’ animal welfare research…” said NFAHW member David Fraser, who has spent 43 years studying animal welfare related topics.
The council has thus vowed to identify and articulate the issues it thinks would most benefit from federal funding.
A more extensive national commitment to such research would also serve the current government’s emphasis on international trade deals, where concerns about humane animal treatment loom large, particularly in Europe.
Producers are under constant pressure to preserve their social licence to raise animals for food. A commitment to federally funded research, with public knowledge that it is being undertaken and clear communication of its results, would solidify that licence and preserve Canada’s ability to trade in food and livestock.
