As a founding member of the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC), the CFHS has been improving living conditions for Canada’s farm animals since the Council’s inception in 2005. As a leader in establishing science-based standards, the CFHS negotiates with animal industry leaders to update and strengthen the codes that define standards for the treatment of animals used for profit – known as Codes of Practice. 2012/2013 saw Code revision progress made for Beef Cattle, Equine, Pig, Mink and Fox.
Your funding has allowed the CFHS and its Code Representatives to continue to negotiate with industry groups to ensure that the highest levels of animal welfare and enrichment on Canadian farms are realized. As of April 2013 the public comment periods for the Mink, Fox and Beef Cattle codes are now complete. Negotiations are now underway to finalize these Codes, with publication anticipated for the summer/fall 2013. In the coming months the Pig code will come up for public comment. As well, your funding has allowed our Code representatives’ involvement with the initial Committee meetings for the new Broiler Chicken and Turkey code.
To put our involvement in the Codes process in context, over the 2012/2013 timeframe our Code Representatives represented the welfare of almost 30 million at-risk farm animals. This can be broken down into: beef (12.8 million animals), equine (965,000 animals--2010 estimate), pig (12.7 million animals) and mink/fox: (2.6 million animals--2010 estimate).
New national Codes of Practice for the welfare of horses, pigs, cattle and sheep are now entering the final stages of negotiation and public comment periods will be held in fall of 2012 and early 2013, providing an opportunity to the public to express their expectations for Canada to meet higher standards.
The process of developing an implementing Codes of Practice is a long and complicated one. It's important to note that once these codes are finished being revised, it will be at least five years before they’re revisited. We need to pour significant resources into our work to improve them right now. Every dollar contributed TODAY by caring Canadians like you puts us in a better position to secure a humane life for farm animals.
If you are interested in being involved in the process of submitting concerns/expectations, please let me know at: davidd@cfhs.ca.
Convened by the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC), the Codes set out minimum requirements for treatment of all farm animals in Canada and serve as reference documents for animal cruelty law. The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies serves as the voice of the Canadian humane movement at the table.
As the CFHS is pushing for more humane standards of care on Canadian farms, it might help you the Five Freedoms.
We use the Five Freedoms to guide and determine animal welfare. The Five Freedoms describe conditions that must be fulfilled in order to prevent the suffering of domesticated animals in human care.This is a concept that was originally developed in 1965 by the UK Government based on the "Brambell" report and is specifically designed to guide how animals under human control should be treated.
The five freedoms are:
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst
2. Freedom from pain, injury, and disease
3. Freedom from distress
4. Freedom from discomfort
5. Freedom to express behaviours that promote well-being
These five freedom concepts are what drives the CFHS when we negotiating on behalf of Canadian farm animals.
As the only national animal welfare organization represented on the National Farm Animal Care Council, the CFHS is tasked with the responsibility of advocating for the welfare of over 700 million farm animals across Canada.
One of the key farm animal codes currently being negotiated is the pork code. This code will determine a farmer’s responsibility to the welfare of his/her animals, including the amount of enrichment time that is needed and laying out a timeline to phase out the use of gestation stalls.
As we are influencing the process from one end, it is great to see retailers and major food services companies pushing for animal welfare reform from the other end. Recently, McDonalds and the Compass Group have made public their plans to only purchase humanely raised pork products.
More information on the Compass Group decision can be found here: http://www.mfablog.org/2012/03/worlds-largest-foodservice-company-announces-plan-to-cut-gestation-crates.html
More information on McDonalds can be found here: http://www.mfablog.org/2012/02/mcdonalds-announces-plans-to-phase-out-cruel-gestation-crates.html
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