Sending a market pig to slaughter is something hog farmers do every week.
But most people recoil from smashing in the head of a healthy newborn piglet. Most farmers consider themselves humane.
But as hog prices linger at record lows, where they are expected to stay until summer, the chance is increasing that some prairie producers will start killing young pigs because they can’t afford to feed them.
An animal welfare group in Saskatchewan has taken steps to try to ensure pigs die humanely.
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“We want to make sure that animal welfare is given high regard,” said Adele Buettner, executive director of the Foundation for Animal Care Saskatchewan.
The organization wants to make sure farmers know they can get help if needed. That way farmers won’t feel compelled to do something drastic or reckless, Buettner said.
The foundation has brought together a number of agencies to offer help.
The Farm Stress Line has set up a livestock care service, which will provide advice from farmers to farmers. Producers will be able to ask about various methods of killing their animals, if they decide that is necessary.
If a farmer decides he cannot kill his pigs himself, the Saskatchewan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is offering to take the pigs and humanely kill them.
“If a producer gets to a point where he realizes that he has to close a barn, but can’t face doing it, he can call us,” said Ernie Olfert, past president of the SPCA.
Money made from selling the animals will be given to the producer.
Saskatchewan’s voluntary hog board, SPI Marketing Group, along with feed suppliers and truckers, are helping the SPCA run this program.
Tension rising
Buettner said she has not received any calls from producers asking how to kill young pigs. But she said the prolonged low price trough is increasing the tension among producers, making many ponder radical ways of reducing their losses on pigs.
Buettner said she does not believe many farmers will decide to kill their herds. And she said the overwhelming majority of pig producers care about their animals and would not allow them to suffer unnecessarily.
But she said stress can make farmers irrational.
She said the recent case of an Ontario hog farmer walking away from his barn, leaving the pigs to starve and asphyxiate in a pond of their own manure, is an example of the type of incident she hopes can be prevented.
“That’s the kind of thing that happens when people are under extreme stress,” she said.
The tragedy in the Ontario case is that “there were support networks out there.”
Buettner said she thinks Saskatchewan is the first province to offer this type of emergency help to hog farmers.
The Farm Stress Line can be reached at 800-667-4442. Saskatchewan Pork Central can be reached at 306-787-9112. The Farm Debt Mediation Service and Farm Consultation Service can be reached at 800-667-5158.
