Just because the W5 piece Friday night on an Arborg area barn and the publicity campaign by a vegetarian organization has gathered some attention, I thought I’d post here the review of the video footage by the Center for Food Integrity, an organization that truth checks claims of animal abuse in North American agriculture.
They often condemn mistreatment of livestock in footage gathered by activists. In this case they are much less condemnatory.
Here’s their analysis, verbatim:
Expert Panel Addresses Hidden Camera Investigation at Manitoba Swine Farm
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Kansas City, MO. (Dec. 10, 2012) – The Animal Care Review Panel, a panel of animal wellbeing
experts, created to analyze undercover video investigations at livestock farms, has
examined undercover video from a Manitoba hog farm and concludes while some of the animal
handling practices shown are improper, most of what is seen are widely considered acceptable
and humane. The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) created the Animal Care Review Panel to
engage recognized animal care specialists to examine hidden camera video investigations and
provide expert perspectives for food retailers, the pork industry and the media.
The panel that examined the recent video in Manitoba was comprised of Dr. Laurie Connor,
University of Manitoba; Dr. Jennifer Brown, Prairie Swine Centre; and Dr. Robert Friendship,
Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph.
The experts viewed a 3-minute video segment produced by the group Mercy For Animals. The
news magazine television series W5 also used clips of the video in a report.
Their report follows:
“The issues the video raises are the main ones the pork industry is already examining – gestation
housing, euthanasia, and pain control with regard to procedures like castration,” said Friendship.
“These are complicated issues and sensationalizing them doesn’t help us arrive at a solution.”
The video shows a sow biting at the bars of its stall and claims the animals are driven mad by
stress and boredom.
“That’s the way the animals react at feeding time,” said Connor. “Or maybe somebody had just
come into the room and these animals associate this with feeding time. Between feeding times
they are usually quiet and docile.”
Close-up shots of animals with shoulder sores and facial scrapes and cuts are shown with the
implication they are due to the animals being housed in individual stalls.
“In any animal population you have to expect a certain level of injury and things that might look
unpleasant but the real concern is how quickly they’re treated for these things,” said Brown.
“The video didn’t show us that.”
“It’s the same as going into a schoolyard and finding a kid with a scraped knee,” added
Friendship. “These things happen and they happen in every type of housing system. You’ll find
lesions on animals living outdoors.”
The video shows farm employees euthanizing piglets by striking their heads against a concrete
floor. It’s known as blunt force trauma and is viewed as humane if carried out properly,
according to the panelists.
“It’s not a pleasant sight and the people who carry it out don’t find it pleasant either,” said
Connor. “But it is the humane thing to do.”
Contact: Mark Crouser
mark.crouser@foodintegrity.org
(816) 556-3134
“The practices they were using were fine,” said Brown. “We should be more concerned when
euthanasia does not occur in a timely fashion and piglets suffer needlessly.”
The panelists acknowledged it can be disturbing to watch farm employees casually euthanizing
animals or even making flippant comments during castration or tail docking.
“It’s shocking to see initially, but you have to understand these people do these things on a daily
basis,” said Friendship. “They become desensitized to it and this is disturbing to the general
public.”
A captive bolt gun is used to euthanize an animal in the video. The process involves shooting a
bolt into the animal’s head – a process veterinary organizations view as humane. A worker who
has carried out the process is seen touching the animals’ twitching eye.
“That’s standard procedure to make sure the animal has been successfully euthanized,” said
Connor.
“We train people to not just walk away – make certain the animal is dead,” said Friendship.
“They should test for corneal reflex or any other indication that the animal is not dead. It looked
to me like these employees knew what they were doing and carried it our properly.”
Another scene shows an employee using a metal rod to probe the animal’s skull, a procedure
known as pithing. The experts said this is recommended to ensure that the pig is dead.
In another scene, the narrator claims a piglet is squealing in pain during castration.
“It appears to me the pig is squealing just as much because it is being held upside down or
because it is being restrained,” said Connor. “The industry is looking into things such as using
analgesics to make this a less painful process but it appeared to me the farm worker was carrying
out the process well and quickly.”
“The video seems to claim castration is a process limited to what they call ‘factory farms’, but
virtually all male pigs are castrated,” said Friendship. “Farms 50 years ago performed this when
the pigs were much bigger which made it much more painful. These small piglets recover very
quickly.
“Things are better today but this procedure does cause pain for a short period of time, and
practical methods of addressing this issue are being examined.”
Another scene shows a sow with a prolapse walking down an aisle.
“There’s nothing that can be done to fix that so I assume they were walking her down the aisle to
euthanize her,” said Brown. “The sow was walking with very easy movement. I didn’t see any
mistreatment. It did not appear the animal had been suffering long because the lesion appeared to
be fresh.”
Contact: Mark Crouser
mark.crouser@foodintegrity.org
(816) 556-3134
In another scene a worker is shown dredging what the video implies to be unclean water in a
drinking trough.
“That’s actually feed in the water and pigs like that,” said Friendship. “That isn’t hurting the
animal at all.”
“They may have been in the process of running a scraper down the trough to clean it out,” added
Connor.
Room for Improvement
One piglet in the video is euthanized by swinging it into a metal post which is not acceptable,
according to the experts, as it is more difficult to ensure the animal does not suffer.
In another scene, an animal that is apparently having trouble getting up is kicked and slapped.
One worker tries to raise the animal by pulling its ears.
“That is unacceptable,” said Friendship. “I’ve been on farms where people seen doing that kind
of thing would be fired on the spot.”
Another scene portrays a sow trapped between the rails of a stall.
“This may have been an isolated incident,” said Connor. “If it’s happening on a regular basis
then farm management should do something to make the stalls safer. But we can’t draw a
conclusion from this video.”
Hidden camera investigations at livestock farms have heightened public attention on animal care
issues. In an effort to foster a more balanced conversation and to provide credible feedback to
promote continuous improvement in farm animal care, CFI created the Animal Care Review
Panel.
The Panel operates independently. Its reviews, assessments, recommendations and reports will
not be submitted to the pork industry for review or approval. CFI’s only role is to facilitate the
review process and release the panel’s findings.
About the Experts
Dr. Laurie Connor
Professor and Head, Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba
Dr. Connor has over 20 years of experience teaching and conducting research in areas of
livestock reproduction, animal environment interactions, welfare and management relative to pig
housing. She also chaired the national committee responsible for the Recommended Code of
Practice for the Care and Handling of Farm Animals: Pigs (1993). Recent and current research
includes: evaluating sow welfare and productivity in a large commercial group housing system;
assessing sow longevity and sow lameness in different housing systems and a collaborative
Contact: Mark Crouser
mark.crouser@foodintegrity.org
(816) 556-3134
project focused on providing decision-making tools for pork producers to successfully convert to
sow group housing.
Dr. Bob Friendship
Professor, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph
Dr. Friendship’s principal areas of interest are swine health management, disease surveillance
and pre-harvest aspects of food safety. His time is equally divided between teaching and
research. Both of these activities bring him into contact with farmers and veterinary practitioners
on a regular basis. He has conducted research into sow reproduction and longevity, antimicrobial
resistance, interaction of diseases and environmental factors, and syndromic surveillance using
veterinary clinics and other data sources. Dr. Friendship has taught swine health management
components of clinical medicine in the undergraduate veterinary curriculum and a graduate
course in swine health management.
Dr. Jennifer Brown
Research Scientist – Ethology, Prairie Swine Centre
Dr. Brown completed her PhD in Applied Ethology at the University of Guelph, where she
studied the effects of temperament and handling experience on the stress response of market pigs
and pork quality. Before entering the field of ethology, Jennifer obtained BSc and MSc degrees
at the University of Prince Edward Island, and worked in clinical chemistry research. Her
research interests include behaviour, stress physiology, and individual differences (temperament)
in pigs, with a focus on humane handling and slaughter methods and the interaction of genetic
and environmental factors. Current research projects examine transport and handling methods
and the relationship between temperament and the stress response.
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The Center for Food Integrity is a not-for-profit corporation established to build consumer trust and confidence in
the today’s food system. Our members, who represent every segment of the food system, are committed to providing
accurate information and addressing important issues among all food system stakeholders. The Center does not
lobby or advocate for individual food companies or brands. For more information, visit www.foodintegrity.org
