Humane Treatment of Farmed Animals

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).