An Alberta farmer has been fined $2,300 for allowing his free-range hogs to feed on the carcasses of dead cattle.
Provincial court judge Terry Semenuk sentenced Rene Liboiron of Torrington, Alta., on Jan. 31 after a lengthy investigation. It is illegal to feed a dead animal to other food-producing animals.
Keith McAllister, an investigator with Alberta Agriculture’s regulatory services division, said investigators discovered the pigs feeding on carcasses of two cows and a calf last June while investigating a complaint concerning improper disposal of dead animals from a month earlier.
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The cattle and 74 hogs, a mixture of sows, boars, feeders and piglets, roamed the nine-acre farm.
“They saw the cows being fed on by the hogs. There was no effort made to keep the cattle separate from the hogs,” said McAllister.
The animals were ordered quarantined and not allowed to leave the farm, but because of a loophole in provincial legislation, the animals couldn’t be destroyed until after the case went to court. Liboiron was paid $18,000 for the seized animals by Alberta Pork to help settle the case. Ed Schultz, general manager of Alberta Pork, said there was no other way to keep the pigs out of the food system.
“We’re smarter now and so is Alberta Agriculture and the appropriate regulations are going to be put it in place. There will be no more purchasing. They will seized, euthanized and that will be that,” said Schultz, who emphasized the money to pay for the hogs did not come from producers.
Gerald Ollis, the chief provincial veterinarian, said the Livestock Diseases Act is under review and is expected to be introduced during the spring sitting of the legislature.
“It will address the whole list of short-comings and issues that we keep stumbling into,” said Ollis.
“This is a disgusting practice and how can you ensure food safety and minimal risk to the public when this kind of practice is going on?”
