Tag: Farmed animals

• The National Farm Animal Care Council’s (NFACC) Chicken and Turkey Code of Practice, which serves as a guideline for on-farm care and handling of birds raised for meat, is coming up for review for the first time since 2016.  
• A short public survey will help determine the top priorities for the code review. 
• The current code allows for many inhumane practices that compromise the welfare of chickens and turkeys in the poultry industry.   
• In 2023, more than 780 million chickens were raised and killed for meat in Canada, representing the vast majority of animals farmed for food nationwide. 

TAKE ACTION: Take the 5-minute survey to speak up for hundreds of millions of individual animals. 

Top welfare priorities

Overcrowding 

Lower the stocking density of birds on poultry farms and provide them with more space to move freely and exhibit natural behaviors. 

Overcrowding in chicken and turkey farms in Canada presents significant welfare and health concerns for the birds. Intensive farming practices, driven by the demand for low-cost poultry, often result in large numbers of birds confined to limited spaces.

For example, the average chicken farm in Canada houses 36,000 birds.

This high-density environment can lead to increased stress, aggressive behaviours, and the spread of diseases, which may necessitate the use of antibiotics and other interventions.

Furthermore, overcrowding compromises the birds’ ability to engage in natural behaviors, such as movement and foraging. This impacts their overall well-being. 

Fast-growing breeds 

Prohibit fast-growing breeds, in favour of higher-welfare breeds that grow more naturally. 

Breeding practices have led to fast-growing chicken and turkey breeds that amount to higher profits for producers but come at significant health and welfare costs for the birds. In 1950, it took 84 days for a chicken raised for meat to reach market weight. Today it takes 38 to 40 days.

The accelerated growth has been linked to skeletal deformities, heart problems, and reduced mobility, as these birds may struggle to support their own weight.  

Barren on-farm environments 

Improve on-farm conditions by requiring:

• access to outdoors;
• enrichment opportunities and materials, such as perches, pecking and foraging materials;
• natural light and darkness; and healthy air quality and litter.   

Intensive farming practices have increasingly led to chickens and turkeys being housed in barren barns, without access to natural light, outdoors, and enrichment opportunities that allow them to engage in important natural behaviours, such as perching, pecking, and foraging. They spend much of their short lives surrounded by their own waste, contributing to unhealthy conditions. 

Painful procedures 

Prohibit painful physical procedures, including beak and toe “trimming” and snood removal.

Common physical procedures on poultry farms, including beak and toe “trimming” and snood (fleshy area on a turkey’s beak) removal, are done to prevent feather pecking and other injuries in flocks. These invasive procedures are performed without pain control, which can lead to chronic pain and stress. 

Feather pecking and other injuries are often a result of intensive farming practices, including overcrowding, barren environments and lack of enrichment opportunities that allow birds to engage in natural behaviours.

• The National Farm Animal Care Council’s (NFACC) Equine Code of Practice serves as a guideline for the on-farm care and handling of horses raised in Canada, including horses used for rodeos, racing, and slaughter. 
• The code of practice is up for review for the first time since 2013 and NFACC is seeking public input on what issues to consider when reviewing and updating the code.
• The current code allows for aversive handling practices that cause stress and fear to horses.
• Note that the code does not include transport, such as the live export of horses for slaughter; it only includes on-farm practices and deciding if individual horses are fit for transport.

Photo: Canadian Horse Defence Coalition

Top welfare priorities

Aversive handling & training 

Prohibit aversive handling, training methods and tools that involve the use of fear, pain or stress to make horses perform an activity or behaviour. 

Many modern training practices are still largely based on historical methods that rely heavily on punishment. While horses may appear “calm”, they are often experiencing learned helplessness. This condition occurs when the horse experiences a painful or negative situation repeatedly and is unable to escape or change the outcome. This results in a negative mental state for the horse. 

Environment & enrichment 

Improve requirements to ensure access to appropriate space, shelter, and dry, clean pen conditions. 

This is important in preventing lameness and other health issues.

Improve requirements to ensure opportunities to forage, turnout/free pasture time, and socialize.

This is crucial for reducing stress and stereotypic behaviour.

Health & lameness

Require that pin firing (thermocautery) not be performed.

Pin firing is a painful procedure that involves burning or freezing the skin and tissue of the affected leg. The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) opposes the practice as it “is ineffective and is inconsistent with evidence-based medicine”.