Animal welfare on farms: a cooperative and educational approach

To enforce animal welfare regulations on farms, the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) focuses above all on educating and raising awareness among producers rather than repression. An approach deemed adequate by several stakeholders, since it produces results, but considered lax by others.

When a breach of the Animal Welfare and Safety Act is observed, an inspector submits an inspection report to the operator. Then, a notice of non-compliance can be issued and an action plan formulated with specific deadlines for carrying out the requested corrective measures.

If the situation is not corrected despite these measures, the inspector may file an offense report with the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).

The DPCP then determines whether or not to file a lawsuit against the operator, which could ultimately lead to a fine in the event of guilt, or even to the seizure of animals.

It is difficult to determine which findings lead, or not, to a general offense report. According to reports seen by The dutysome operators have received inspection reports highlighting “worrying” body conditions in the animals, or even cows unable to get up from the ground, without however receiving a violation report.

The violation report is therefore usually filed after the operator, who contravenes the regulations, has received one or more warnings. But the sequence may not be respected for cases deemed urgent or serious, explains Émilie Pelletier, veterinarian and spokesperson for MAPAQ.

For mee Alain Roy, professor of animal law at the University of Montreal, this gradation of measures is to the detriment of animals. After receiving a report, inspectors “went to a farm and found shortcomings, but there were no violations”, he is surprised. “I want to [donner une chance] awareness, awareness and education, but there is a limit, he says. The one and only losers [de ce système] are animals. »

No systematic visits

There are no systematic visits to farms in Quebec to monitor compliance with animal welfare regulations. The inspectors move, without warning, when a complaint is filed. Following an initial intervention, follow-up visits — which aim to verify whether the shortcomings have been resolved — are also carried out without notice.

The majority of farms, however, regularly receive visits from veterinarians who have an ethical obligation to denounce breaches of animal welfare, says Dr. Jean-Yves Perreault, president of the Association of Veterinary Practitioners of Quebec.

Like the MAPAQ, veterinarians do not adopt a coercive approach, he explains. When a breach is noted, the veterinarian will work with the producer, in a positive way, to rectify the situation. “He will try to supervise the animal to solve the problem, understand the source of the problem and accompany the producer in a process of change”, specifies Dr. Perreault.

The veterinarian will also make the operator aware of the fact that his productivity will be affected if the animals are not kept in optimal conditions. In the “vast majority of cases”, operators will quickly rectify the situation, assures Dr. Perreault. “If there is really an issue in terms of the producer’s commitment, then an intervention can be made with the MAPAQ. »

Producer groups have also developed their own certification programs to ensure the quality of their products, which generally includes an animal welfare component.

This is particularly the case with Producteurs de lait du Québec with the ProAction program, which involves a visit to the farm by a validation agent, explains Paul Doyon, first vice-president of the Union des producteurs agricole (UPA) and dairy producer. “All animal welfare standards must be met for a producer to be certified. It is conditional to have access to the market [et pouvoir vendre ses produits] “, he specifies.

Often, when mistreatment is inflicted on animals, human distress is hidden behind, point out Mr. Doyon and Dr. Perreault.

Intensive farming mode

For an animal welfare breach to be reported to MAPAQ, the problem must therefore generally persist and be outside the practices accepted by the industry. Aggregate average fines of $51,000 per year have been levied since 2017 against farm operators who contravene provisions of the Animal Welfare and Safety Act.

But for M.e Sophie Gaillard, acting director general and director of animal defense and legal affairs at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Montreal (SPCA-Montreal), “there is almost nothing that is illegal [et donc qui peut mener à une plainte] in terms of the treatment of farm animals.

If breeding activities are “carried out according to generally recognized rules”, they are exempt from the main provisions of the Act which prohibit endangering the welfare and health of an animal or causing it distress.

These rules are set out in codes of practice developed across Canada by the National Farm Animal Care Council. Committees draft these codes, whose members are generally mostly representatives of the agri-food industry, but also veterinarians and government representatives, among others.

According to current regulations, a citizen who has a pig as a pet and cuts off its tail can be prosecuted and fined. But a farmer who cuts the tails of his pigs is not acting illegally since it is an accepted practice for raising pigs.

According to Me Gaillard, the Government of Quebec must itself establish the practices that are deemed acceptable in farms in the province. “We need to establish a regulatory framework so that it is the government that determines what is legal or not in the treatment of animals,” she believes. And then the government must deploy the necessary resources to ensure that these regulations are respected.

Paul Doyon, of the UPA, believes on the contrary that the current system of codes of practice works well and that it makes it possible to constantly improve animal welfare. “We are so much more in the same place as ten or twenty years ago, he testifies. Producers have invested in recent years and there has been government support to improve facilities. We must also avoid falling into anthropomorphism, he says, by attributing human emotions to animals.

Tomorrow: a conflict of interest at MAPAQ?

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