The apparent growing issue of on-farm protests threatening the health and safety of animals is the subject of a private member’s bill recently introduced to the House of Commons.
Conservative agriculture critic John Barlow introduced the bill with the goal of punishing those responsible for on-farm protests.
“There are a lot of variables (farmers) have to deal with, commodity prices, now a carbon tax and illegal blockades,” he said. “Having to deal with activists and protesters coming on your property and into your barns and onto your land is just one thing that we don’t think that they should have to deal with,” he said.
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If passed, the bill would amend the Health of Animals Act and make it an offence to enter a place where animals are kept without permission if doing so could result in the animals being exposed to disease or a toxic substance.
It has the support of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Meat Council, Canadian Pork Council, Chicken Farmers of Canada, Egg Farmers of Canada and Turkey Farmers of Canada.
“We are not trying to muzzle free speech, this is nothing against legal protesting,” Barlow said. “You can do that on public land, that is fine. But when you cross that line onto private property, we have an issue.”
The bill would also put in place a financial penalty and potential jail time for people involved in threatening on-farm animals. A fine of up to $50,000 or up to two years of imprisonment is included for individuals, while every person other than an individual — essentially meaning organizations — who contravene the new law would be subject to a fine of up to $500,000.
“A lot of times these protesters don’t really understand the potential consequences of when they are endangering animal health,” said Barlow.
“The feeling that we had was, you know, a lot of these groups are now very well-funded, very well organized by large organizations like, you know, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and the World Wildlife Fund,” he said. “To just have a small fine for an individual is one thing, but I think the groups that are organizing this and putting our food supply and the biosecurity of our supply chain at risk, there has to be consequences for them as well.”
Lisa Bishop-Spencer, director of brand and communications for Chicken Farmers of Canada, said producers take pride in raising safe food for Canadians.
“We have a government-recognized, on-farm food safety program that strictly enforces biosecurity measures on every farm across the country,” she said. “It’s a mandatory program. It’s an enforceable program. It’s a third party audit program.”
Anything that helps to strengthen animal health laws is good for the chicken farmers, according to Bishop-Spencer, who said she is encouraged that MPs are recognizing the issue because it is a substantive threat to farmers.
“I can’t tell you specifically how many on-farm trespassers there have been as a result of, you know, activism as we call it, but I can tell you that it has increased,” she said. “We’re always hearing about it.”
