RED DEER — British Columbia dairy producers were not prepared for the public backlash when an undercover video showed cows being abused on a Chilliwack farm.
“We were ill equipped for a crisis of this magnitude,” said Jim Byrne, chair of the B.C. Milk Marketing Board.
“We had never had anything like that before. None of us had experience in how to deal with that kind of crisis.”
The crisis led to a mandatory animal welfare program for B.C. dairies, which goes into effect May 1.
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Video footage was taken of animal abuse at Canada’s largest dairy, Chilliwack Cattle Sales. Eight employees on the night shift were fired, but animal activists and the public demanded that more had to be done.
Major processors would not accept the farm’s milk, so 80,000 litres per day were delivered to an anerobic digester in Washington state.
Consumers did not like dumping milk and said it should go to food banks, but food banks could not handle unprocessed, unpackaged milk.
“All we could do was dump the milk and pay for it,” Byrne told the Western Dairy Seminar held in Red Deer March 11-13.
No one was really in charge during the early days of the maelstrom, so the milk board decided to take control of the situation.
“Because there was no one else in control in British Columbia, no one that could take control because there was no legislation for it, we took it upon ourselves to enforce animal welfare standards,” he said.
The board worked with veterinarians and the SPCA to visit the farm, and an animal welfare committee was formed comprising government representatives, the province’s chief veterinary officer, the Farm Industry Review Board, legal counsel, Dairy Farmers of Canada, processors and dairy organizations. It met within a few weeks to develop a plan.
Two months later, the provincial supervisory authority directed the province’s five supply managed commodities to write an animal welfare plan to ensure animals were protected.
The dairy code of practice is incorporated into the new standard, and independent inspectors will visit farms. The welfare program will be reviewed in two years to make sure it is working properly for the province’s 500 producers.
barbara.duckworth@producer.com
