Andrew and his son moved into his home seven years ago and was greeted by a grey cat that the previous tenants left behind. His family quickly formed a bond with the cat and decided to call him Mr. Earl.
He immediately took to me and slept on my bed every night and was so happy he had someone to care for him and snuggle with. Recently he has found a new favourite place which he really loves – hanging out with my son in his room and watching TV. They have become best friends.
Andrew, Mr. Earls guardian
Andrew recently contacted VHS as Mr. Earl had gotten out of the house and arrived back in rough shape, his left hind leg appearing broken.
He’s been hiding under a table in my son’s room and we can’t get close to him because he squeals and hisses when we get near. He’s not eating, drinking or using the litter box. He is in a lot of pain.
Andrew and his family found Mr. Earl hiding under a table in pain
Andrew was laid off four months ago due to Covid-19. A roofer for more than 20 years, Andrew and his son needed some support for Mr. Earl.
I have never asked for help before because I know there are people less fortunate than myself, but recently I have been struggling and this is why I have to ask. We love Mr. Earl more than anything and it would be heartbreaking if he left us. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you for the support of our kitty.
Our McVitie Fund, generously funded by supporters like you, helped pay for Mr. Earl’s surgery for his broken leg at the end of July. But 10 days after his surgery, the wound site became extremely infected and there was a need for a second procedure to remove infected tissue from inside his stitches.
Mr. Earl’s two procedures totaled more than $700. Will you help cover the cost of his care by making a donation to our McVitie Fund today?
July 16, 2020 – Covert citizen footage taken at an egg farm at the 32000 block of Huntingdon Road in Abbotsford, BC shows egg-laying hens being loaded on trucks destined for Superior Poultry Processors slaughterhouse in Coquitlam, BC. One of the workers is seen wearing an ELITE Farm Services safety vest.
MORE ANIMAL ABUSE CAUGHT ON VIDEO AT ABBOTSFORD EGG FARM
Video taken on July 15, 2020 shows severe animal cruelty at an egg farm on the 32000 block of Huntingdon Road in Abbotsford, B.C. The disturbing footage shows workers callously throwing spent egg-laying hens into crates, grabbing the chickens by a single leg or wing. One of the workers is seen wearing an ELITE Chicken Catching Services shirt.
Unedited longer video clips can be viewed here and here.
The witness who took the new video said, “the chickens were being flung into crates head-first,” “some were thrown in cages by their wings and many thrown in by one leg. I saw workers close the crate lids on the necks and limbs of these poor birds.”
After reviewing the footage, Veterinarian Dr. Nadine Meyer stated, “improper handling of chickens, as seen here several times, may result in injuries ranging from bruises and head trauma (concussions), to fractured bones or dislocated joints.”
Sadly, this is not the first time Elite Farm Services Ltd. has been caught abusing animals. In June 2017, Elite was the subject of a video exposé after a whistleblower of animal rights group Mercy For Animals filmed employees stomping on live birds, ripping conscious chickens apart and violently slamming others against crates & walls. CTV coverage can be viewed here.
Additionally, Elite was associated with another animal cruelty investigation at a different Abbotsford egg farm in 2018. Media coverage for the story can be found here and here.
The company was charged with 38 counts of unlawfully harming chickens related to the 2017 Mercy For Animals investigation. Their pre-trial conference was in New Westminster Thursday August 13, 2020. There will be a preliminary inquiry on September 28 and Elite is scheduled to be tried by Jury in January 2021.
“In 2017, Mercy For Animals exposed egregious animal abuse by Elite Farm Services, with chickens having their limbs torn off and being tossed around like footballs, slammed into objects and hit and kicked,” said Leah Garcés, president of Mercy For Animals. “It’s very concerning that this new footage suggests the company, which still has charges pending for its beating and loading of chickens in the prior case, apparently has not done enough to stamp out rough handling and callous treatment of animals.”
“Hens have weak bones by the end of lay. As a result, there is a high risk of bone fractures when hens are handled prior to transport (2). Care in handling, such as catching end-of-lay hens by both legs rather than one, reduces bone breakage (8). If layer hens are carried by one leg only, there is a greater chance of birds suffering from fractures and hip dislocations.”
“All parties involved in the catching and transporting process have a responsibility and obligation to ensure catching, transfer, and holding on-farm is undertaken in such a manner that minimizes stress and injury.”
“Birds must be placed in transport containers gently…”
-ends-
VHS is monitoring the situation and will comment further as details emerge. Media coverage can be seen here.
This action has now ended. Thank you to the 6,910 advocates who used the quick action to call an end to horse-drawn trolleys in Stanley Park. Please see the Current Campaigns page for more ways you can help protect horses and other animals.
Stanley Park’s horse-drawn trolley is a tragic accident waiting to happen.
Let the Park Board know you support removing the trolley
In 2016, horses pulling a tram full of tourists through Vancouver’s famous Stanley Park were spooked by traffic. The frightened animals bolted off the roadway, crossing a bike path and smashing a park bench before nearly taking the tram over the seawall.
Some tourists in Vancouver’s Stanley Park went for an unexpected ride after a pair of horses pulling a carriage were spooked during an anti-pipeline protest. The carriage was stopped for protesters when a car sounded a horn and scared the horses. The animals jumped the curb, pulling the carriage into a bench and throwing one woman off.
Fortunately, no horses or people were seriously hurt, however, such incidents could easily occur in the future. Stanley Park’s horse-drawn tram is a tragic accident waiting to happen.
Being surrounded by motor vehicle traffic forces horses to inhale toxic exhaust and causes them mental distress, which can make the animals unpredictable and potentially dangerous to park pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles. There are also concerns about traffic being slowed in the lane currently allocated to motor vehicles, leading to motorists unsafely passing the tram in the lane allocated to cyclists.
Many cities, including Montreal, have banned such vehicles. It’s time for Vancouver to do the same.
The Vancouver Humane Society and UBC Animal Justice have sent a letter to Park Board Commissioners calling on them to end the horse-drawn tram in Stanley Park and put the safety of the horses, cyclists, and motorists first.
You can help prevent a tragic accident from happening – sign the petition now.
How you can help
Say no to horse-drawn trolleys in Stanley Park
This action has now ended.
6,910 people used this tool to call on the Park Board to remove horse-drawn trolleys from Stanley Park. Thank you for taking action.
The following advertisements are part of VHS’s Go Veg program, which focuses on educating and empowering individuals in making the transition toward a plant-based diet and vegan lifestyle.
Please help us share the “Go Veg” message by sharing the ads to your social media pages.
When you share, feel free to tag us on Facebook (@VancouverHumaneSociety), Instagram (@VancouverHumane) and Twitter (@VanHumane).
Just like our pets, farmed animals can think through problems and find solutions. Just like our pets, farmed animals deserve our kindness. Visit goveg.ca for more info.
Proffit the cat was rushed to the ER earlier this month when his owner Jacqui noticed he was having difficultly breathing. With a diagnosis of water in his lungs and congestive heart failure, he received emergency medical treatment and was kept in the clinic overnight for monitoring.
The bill was $2,100 and I had to borrow my friends credit card. I’ve been out of work because of a car accident and I’m on social assistance while I wait to apply for disability. I do have a part time job waiting for me, but it is closed due to Covid.
Jacqui, Proffit’s owner
Jacqui told us that Proffit has been in her life for the past 8 years and he is loved very much. She tries to do everything she can to ensure that he is well looked after. Proffit has since returned to the vet for further blood work and is now on medication for his heart failure.
He is doing better now and is happy at home, but he needs to visit the vet again for them to monitor how his meds are doing and to make sure his kidneys are okay with this medicine. It has also been recommended that he get a cardiac ultrasound to further assess his heart and ensure he’s on the correct long-term medication.
Proffit enjoying some love and affection
Our McVitie Fund helps keep animals like Proffit happy and healthy in the loving care of their owners. Unexpected veterinary bills can be financially and emotionally devastating for individuals struggling on little or no income.
Please help Proffit and Jacqui by making a donation today to support his recovery.
Tank is an active, athletic 3-year-old American bully/old English bully cross who means everything to her loving family.
My son was born with only half a heart and has had three open heart surgeries and a stroke all before he was two and a half years old. Tank lets us know when he is off and helps keep him calm when his brain can’t handle his environment. Though she is not a registered therapy dog, she is my son’s therapy dog and his protector.
Julie, Tank’s loving guardian
When Tank injured her left leg, her owner Julie was told that she would need emergency knee surgery to fix the injury, costing $4,000; an amount she knew their struggling family could not afford.
My husband was laid off in August 2019 and due to COVID-19 he has only just gone back to work. I have also been out of work since February, as I teach first aid and have to be very careful with our high risk son. We have depleted our savings and that makes this $4000+ surgery an impossibility without some help. My boys are doing a bottle drive and I am drumming up some sales from my knitting and crochet hobby, but without help from organizations like yours we will be unable to get the surgery done for a long time, and she would be in pain without it.
That’s where our McVitie Fund comes in. It is only because of generous supporters like you, that we are able to help Julie and Tank.
We are determined to keep loving, loyal Tank with her family. Can you help Tank by contributing towards the cost of her surgery?
On July 22, 2020, Vancouver Humane Society’s executive director, Amy Morris, interviewed campaign director Emily Pickett. Emily highlights actions that we can take as individuals to protect animal welfare.
1. Eat plant-based food 2. Be curious 3. Celebrate food victories 4. Visit an animal sanctuary 5. Petitions & political engagement 6. Apply the skills you have https://vancouverhumanesociety.bc.ca/our-work/
Emily shared her personal journey from first learning about animal suffering to identifying actionable solutions to the ‘wicked’ problems. She shared about her personal decisions to improve the well-being of animals, as well as some of Vancouver Humane Society’s long-term goals when it comes to protecting animals.
Lots of cattle heaped up in a corral in the Mercado de Liniers, Argentina
The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) is joining other animal protection, environmental and food advocacy groups in calling on the federal government to direct any financial aid for Canada’s agriculture system toward transitioning to a safe, equitable and sustainable plant-based food system that improves food security, protects animal welfare, public health, worker safety and the environment on which we all depend.
The joint letterhighlights that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed serious problems with Canada’s food system and supply chains, particularly in the meat industry. Industrial livestock operations are a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation and are characterized by the confinement of large numbers of genetically-similar animals in unnatural and unhealthy environments. These conditions significantly compromise their welfare and could lead to the rise of new zoonotic diseases that threaten public health.
Meanwhile, the consolidation of the meat industry into the hands of a few multi-billion dollar corporations makes supply chains vulnerable to unexpected disruptions. For example, the pandemic has prompted some pig farmers in Canada to cull animals in response to reduced processing capacity at slaughterhouses, after they were forced to suspend or slow operations following COVID-19 outbreaks among workers. A large number of COVID-19 cases have been linked to slaughterhouses and employees have spoken out about the lack of protection for workers and the dangerous, fast-paced, and unhealthy environments.
The joint letter encourages the federal Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to dedicate any emergency funding for the agricultural sector, as well as any future funding, on phasing out industrial livestock operations and assisting farmers in transitioning toward a sustainable, ethical and equitable plant-based food system. COVID-19 is an unprecedented wake-up call and policy-makers must take action to ensure that we emerge from this crisis with a more resilient food system that is respectful of the inter-connectedness of human, environmental, and animal health.
“We simply do not know if animals are capable of reasoning and cognitive thought”.
This statement was made by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) in its submission to the Ontario government in support of Bill 156 – a recently passed ‘ag-gag’ bill that effectively conceals animal cruelty, unsafe working conditions and environmental issues on farms, during transport and at slaughterhouses. Animal protection organizations, legal experts and the Canadian Association of Journalists have all raised serious concerns about this dangerous legislation.
Also concerning is the fact that the OFA, which represents more than 38,000 farm operations across Ontario, questions the sentience of animals. The organization offers no source for their claim. Meanwhile, a strong and growing body of research provides evidence of animal intelligence and sentience.
Chickens, for example, utilize reasoning to inform how they organize socially by watching other chickens interact. Research also suggests they are cognitively complex, with the ability to demonstrate self-control and self-assessment – capacities that suggest self-awareness.
Cows are also socially complex creatures who form strong bonds and experience a range of emotions. They express excitement and signs of pleasure when they figure out intellectual challenges, which suggests self-awareness and understanding of their own actions.
Pigs share some of the same cognitive abilities as other highly intelligent species, including dogs, chimpanzees, elephants and dolphins. They are capable of “emotional contagion”, which is a form of empathy for the emotional state of another.
Experts suggest we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface in our understanding of farmed animal intelligence. Animal behaviour expert Dr. Marc Bekoff also explores this topic in a recent Psychology Today article, written in response to the OFA’s statements. Importantly though, as Dr. Bekoff notes, “intelligence is a slippery concept and should not be used to assess suffering..in addition, the way in which people treat or mistreat other animals and how they feel about it isn’t a matter of how smart they are. Rather, nonhumans are sentient beings, and it’s a matter of how they suffer, not if they suffer.”
But the reality of animal sentience creates ethical dilemmas for an industry that relies on raising and slaughtering more than 830 million land animals every year in Canada. It’s easier to pretend animals aren’t complex, feeling and thinking beings and it’s better for business if the public stays uninformed about the realities on farms, during transport and in slaughterhouses.
How you can help
Bill 156 is an incredibly dangerous step in the wrong direction and follows on the heels of similar ‘ag-gag’ legislation passed earlier this year in Alberta (Bill 27). The move by government and industry to hide the issues within the animal agriculture system, rather than address them directly, and to question the sentience of farmed animals should concern Canadians.
The effort to repeal and prevent further ‘ag-gag’ legislation is underway – join in by contacting Ontario’s Premier & Alberta’s Premier. In addition, we as individuals can also stand up for animals every time we sit down to eat. Learn more and take our Plant-Based Pledge today for free recipes.
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Receive a free plant-based recipe emailed to you weekly, along with other plant-based tips & VHS updates.
I pledge to eat more plant-based meals in an effort to help protect animals, the planet & my health!
The B.C. government has agreed to permanently halt logging in the Dakota Ridge area on the Sunshine Coast. The decision was announced in early March in a joint government/Skwxwu7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) press release. The area had been part of a plan by B.C. Timber Sales (the B.C. government agency that regulates logging on public land) to allow logging in area, which could have destroyed black bear dens that are concentrated on the ridge. Elphinstone Logging Focus, a local conservation group campaigning against the logging plan, reported on the win.
Meanwhile, the Spô’zêm Nation and environmental groups leading the campaign against planned logging in the Fraser Canyon have announced that the government has put the plan on hold. The logging would have threatened spotted owl habitat.
Thank you to the more than 2,300 VHS supporters who sent the following message to the B.C. Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development and to everyone who worked for these important wins for animals.
“I am writing to ask you to stop planned logging on the Sunshine Coast and in the Fraser Canyon that threatens the habitats of black bears and spotted owls.
Specifically, I’m asking that you halt a plan by B.C. Timber Sales to allow logging in the Dakota Ridge area of the Sunshine Coast that could destroy black bear dens that are concentrated on the ridge. Studies have shown that logging in the area would destroy up to 28 dens in two cut blocks. The forest on Dakota Ridge has some of the oldest trees in Canada, which provide ideal dens for black bears when they rot out at the base.
In addition, the provincial government has approved clearcut logging in the Fraser Canyon, which is a habitat for highly endangered northern spotted owls. The spotted owl has been listed as endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act since 2003. I urge you to reconsider approval for this logging, which is a clear threat to this vulnerable species.
British Columbians value these animals and we expect the provincial government to protect them. Please take action to ensure their habitats are not destroyed by this ill-considered exploitation of B.C.’s forests.”
Campaign Background:
Spotted owl habitat under threat
The online magazine The Narwhal reports that the provincial government has approved clearcut logging in the Fraser Canyon, which is a habitat for highly endangered northern spotted owls.
Citing maps produced by the Wilderness Committee, the Narwhal report states that the B.C. government has “issued more than 300 logging approvals — totaling almost 2,000 hectares — in the spotted owl’s range from October 2018 to May 2020…” The spotted owl has been listed as endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act since 2003.
Black bear dens would be destroyed
The Narwhal also reported that a plan by B.C. Timber Sales (the B.C. government agency that regulates logging on public land) to allow logging in the Dakota Ridge area of the Sunshine Coast could destroy black bear dens that are concentrated on the ridge. A study cited by the magazine concluded that logging in the area would destroy up to 28 dens in two cut blocks (areas authorized for logging).
The forest on Dakota Ridge has some of the oldest trees in Canada, which provide ideal dens for black bears when they rot out at the base. The area also provides the bears with plentiful blueberries and fresh water.
