Every day in Canada, more than 2.3 million farm animals are slaughtered for human consumption. In 2022, a record 854 million farm animals died, according to data compiled by The duty. A figure 22 times higher than the human population in the country.
“These are stunning numbers, drop Me Sophie Gaillard, Acting Director General of the Montreal SPCA. When you enter such high figures, it is quite difficult to imagine what more than 800 million animals per year can look like. A reality certainly elusive by its gigantism and which is often also unknown to consumers.
The numbers keep increasing over the years. In 2019, a previous record of 833 million cattle were slaughtered in the country, before experiencing a slight slowdown the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic (803 million). The pace picked up in 2021, with more than 825 million animals slaughtered across the country.
In 2022, Canada slaughtered 29 million more animals than the previous year – and even 151 million more animals than ten years earlier.
It is a mass slaughter.
And this assessment, calculated from monthly and weekly slaughter reports from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, although colossal, is incomplete. Indeed, the figures reported by the ministry do not take into account the animals which lose their lives on the farms, those which die in transport and the male chicks of laying hens killed at birth since they have no value in the food chain.
More chickens
But although the number of slaughtered animals follows an upward curve, a downward trend in the consumption of red meat is observed. In Canada, annual beef consumption has fallen from 38 kg (in slaughtered weight) per capita in 1980 to 24 kg in 2021. The same goes for pork consumption, which has fallen from 32 kg to 19 kg per Canadian during the same period.
“Pork and beef consumption has fallen by about a third [depuis les années 1980]indicates Me Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice, an organization made up of lawyers working to give animals a legal voice in Canada. But people replace these meats with chicken. And since chickens are much smaller than other farm animals, you have to kill considerably more of them to get the same amount of meat.
This is one of the reasons why most slaughtered animals are broiler chickens, ie commercial broiler chickens. More than 778 million young chickens had been slaughtered in 2022 in the country to become rotisserie chickens – alone representing 91% of the heads slaughtered this year in Canada.
More than 24 million laying hens and breeding chickens were also killed to be transformed into chicken nuggets, broth and other derivative products.
These astronomical figures for the slaughter of broiler chickens are similar in Quebec. According to data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, more than 194 million broiler chickens were slaughtered in Quebec in 2022 – or a quarter of all chickens slaughtered in the country during the year. The province slaughtered nearly 10 million more chickens than in 2021.
It is certain that the industrial production methods need to be improved.
However, a significant portion of the red meat produced in Canada does not stay in the country. For example, 45.5% of beef production in Canada was exported in 2021. And of the 2.2 million tonnes of pork produced in Canada in 2021, 1.5 million tonnes were exported — or 68.7 %.
Quebec also accounts for a large share of these exports, particularly for farmed hogs — the province being Canada’s largest exporter. In fact, Quebec provides about 40% of Canadian pork exports, according to data from the Quebec government.
source of debate
These monumental data on the slaughter of animals do not fail to arouse debate. Where some see livestock as a necessity to feed an ever-growing population, others see it as a source of avoidable suffering.
Me Alain Roy, professor of animal rights at the University of Montreal, is undoubtedly part of this second category. “It’s a mass murder […] which testifies to the extent of the disaster in terms of animal ethics and the environment”, he thunders, recalling that animals are sentient beings, that is to say, they feel pain. and experience emotions that allow them to perceive their life experiences subjectively.
“Are my food preferences worth the suffering of animals? For me, the answer is clearly no”, he says, considering that many people practice willful blindness. “The consumer who wants his steak will do everything to eliminate the cognitive dissonance that makes him extremely uncomfortable,” he continues. He will convince himself that the animals are destined to end up on his plate, that’s how it works and that we do everything so that they don’t suffer. »
But for the DD Caroline Kilsdonk, a veterinarian specializing in bioethics, does not mean that meat consumption should be demonized. “In my opinion, what is important is to maintain the capacity for dialogue,” she underlines. However, the supporters of the antispeciesist and abolitionist ideologies have a “vision which is very categorical” and which can lead to a polarization of the debate which proves to be counter-productive for advancing ethical questions, she believes.
“For them, it is completely immoral to kill an animal to eat it and use it […] but we cannot enter into discussions with these people to try to show them that it is moral, ”she laments. The veterinarian nevertheless believes that it is completely “logical” that we tend, as a society, towards a reduction in meat consumption, accompanied by an improvement in the living conditions of farmed animals. “It’s certain that the industrial production methods need to be improved,” she says.
From an extensive to intensive model
Intensive farming emerged in the 1950s, taking over from extensive farming – which advocated rearing animals outdoors with pasture-based feeding. “After the Second World War, there was a fairly rapid process of intensification. We looked for ways to bring the animals back into a more compact space and in a more productive way,” explains Jamie Dallaire, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Laval University specializing in animal behavior and well-being.
A new mode of production that has made it possible to meet the growing demand for food for human consumption by achieving productivity gains. Animals were confined indoors, at a higher density, and fed outside feed rather than pasture. A development that raises animal welfare concerns, however – although not unique to the intensive model.
“There are challenges in terms of animal welfare both with the extensive mode [prédateurs, intempéries, accès à la nourriture] only with the intensive mode [limitation de la liberté de mouvements et de la possibilité pour les animaux d’exprimer leurs comportements naturels], says Jamie Dallaire. But in general, the challenges are more difficult to overcome in intensive mode than in extensive mode. »
In recent years, the constantly growing concerns of consumers for farming that is more concerned with animal welfare have made it possible to change practices. Organic farming has also allowed a return, in some farms, to more extensive breeding. But the fact remains that “real progress [pour le bien-être des animaux] is slower than changing attitudes [des consommateurs] says Jamie Dallaire.