Animal transport report highlights need to do more

The vast majority of livestock shipped to slaughter in Canada are transported properly, but industry and government can do more to ensure humane treatment and improve the public image of the meat business.The issue of humane livestock transportation is growing as slaughter plant consolidation and other factors cause livestock to be trucked longer distances.For example, there is no major federal slaughter plant for cattle or hogs operating in Saskatchewan so livestock from the province must be shipped to neighbouring provinces or the United States.Transportation distances can also be lengthened when American processors or feeding operations become attractive because of currency fluctuations, localized shortages and trade bans with offshore buyers.A recent report by the World Society for the Protection of Animals cast a spotlight on livestock transportation in Canada. The paper looked at reports filed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency between Oct. 9, 2008, and Jan. 9, 2009.The society argues that an unacceptable number of animals, particularly chickens, die during transport.It also identifies situations where animals were transported in overcrowded conditions and where injured or sick animals were shipped in contravention of animal health regulations.It recommends government hire more trained animal welfare inspectors to enforce existing standards, improve standards by reducing transport times and maximum loading densities, implement stronger incentives for good handling and penalties for contraventions and provide more training to drivers.The report draws attention to unacceptable situations, such as 635,000 chickens that died in transport during the three months, mostly from freezing, and individual cases of injured animals shipped long distances or left suffering.However, the report focuses exclusively on the failures of the system and extreme situations, and so gives a stilted view.For example, the number of chicken deaths seems astounding until it is considered that about 612 million chickens go to processors each year and about 99.5 percent of them arrive alive.Death in transport is the exception, not the rule, which is not surprising given that dead livestock are an economic loss.Nevertheless, cases of needless animal suffering are immoral and damaging to the livestock sector because the public often judges an industry on the basis of its worst performance.Industry and government understand this and are taking steps to improve the situation.The federal government is working on an overdue update of animal transport rules that are more than 30 years old.As part of the update, the government should work to co-ordinate with American humane handling rules. In particular, required timing for rest, water and feed stops should not be reset to zero when animals cross the border.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency should ensure it has adequate staff to enforce humane handling rules. CFIA should publish the names of those who break those rules.The industry is acting to include humane handling in quality assurance programs and rolling out education initiatives such as Alberta’s Certified Livestock Training (CLT) program. Some processors have implemented humane handling plant audits.There is strong voluntary interest in the CLT course, indicating that many want to do the right thing.The industry should consider taking the next step of setting a target date for making certification a requirement for all people involved in commercial livestock transportation. There is an education job for shippers also, and truckers should be able to reject loads if they contravene humane handling regulations.