The Globe and Mail has covered the issue of farm animal transport in a June 2 article, revealing that "Canadian standards for farm-animal transport are dangerously lax."

Throughout Canada each year, more than 600 million farm animals are transported from farms for sale at auction and for slaughter.

More than 2 million of these animals die in transit. A further 10 million animals are condemned from human consumption after arriving diseased or injured at abattoirs each year in Canada, according to the CFIA's own statistics.

In 2006, the BC SPCA submitted a report of recommendations to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), as part of a government pre-consultation on amendments to the federal regulations on animal transport. Since then, no amendments to these 30-year-old laws have materialized. The laws, which are outdated in comparison to other developed nations, allow cattle to be transported for 52 hours continuously without food or water.

In 2008, the BC SPCA released further recommendations drawn from a roundtable meeting of animal welfare experts, including Dr. Temple Grandin.

For more information on this subject, read the Globe and Mail article.

You can learn more about this issue and help the BC SPCA help these animals by sending an action letter to Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.  

You can help the BC SPCA continue to advocate for higher standards of animal welfare for farm animals. Please donate to the BC SPCA's Monty Fund for Community Education & Outreach today.

The BC SPCA is a non-profit organization funded primarily by public donations. Our mission is to prevent cruelty and to promote the welfare of animals through a wide range of services, including cruelty investigations, emergency rescue and treatment, sheltering and adoption of homeless and abused animals, humane education, advocacy, farm animal welfare, spay/neuter programs, and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation.