As someone who grew up on a farm, and has covered the agriculture sector as a journalist for some 25 years, I have to say I find myself confused over the seeming wavering line between animal welfare and animal rights.
On the one hand I completely understand the concerns people have, both with the farm community itself, and the broader realm of general society regarding animal welfare.
And I fully appreciate the line of acceptability is a moving one.
At one point in time gladiatorial between people was acceptable, slavery was accepted, and ideas such as bull-baiting, cock fighting and similar combats between animals were common place.
That is no longer the case whether, and whether talking about how we deal with one another, or with animals, the above examples are no longer commonly accepted for good reason.
So when I read about a group such as Mercy For Animals looking to change the regulations for transporting livestock, it is appreciated what may have once been acceptable no longer may be.
Canada does have a Code of Practice for transporting livestock, but it has not been updated since 1991. Any document which has not been changed in 25 years is likely to be out-dated.
If we think back nearly 25-years, there were still many local meat processors, now gone, which means longer hauls today, so that alone would suggest a good look at modernizing the Code be undertaken.
But there is always a nagging fear among those in agriculture that to give an inch in terms of animal welfare will only mean the extremists in the animal rights camp will move the mark and want more.
That fear seems warranted.
The situation stateside regarding the slaughter of horses is so ridiculous that it has left horses abandoned in the wild because owners don’t want to be feed an animal which is no longer useful for its intended purpose.
That is much like having a good brood cow. At some point when she is no longer a good mother cow, she will end up hamburger.
Animal rightists might hold an idyllic vision that one day no one eats meat, all animals are set free and everything is wonderful.
But that is a rather over simplistic vision which doesn’t necessarily serve animals very well.
Cattle not being raised for milk and meat have little place on a farm, and they would have limited survival instincts in the wild.
Chickens would be worse.
It is a slim line between opening chicken cages to free hens, and a local population of very fat coyotes and foxes for a time, and no chickens at all.
So as we modernize regulations, and evolve what is reasonable in animal husbandry, we also need to remain diligent that the radical fringe does not hijack the process and leave us with regulations lacking in common sense.
