Ontario SPCA issues blow up at Ontario Pork meeting

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Years of apprehension simmering around the Ontario SPCA emerged at this year’s Ontario Pork annual general meeting.

Fifteen of a total of 24 resolutions called for Ontario Pork to take action on behalf of producers on perceived animal welfare issues, mostly to do with the Ontario SPCA, the charitable organization with police powers that enforces animal welfare laws in the province.

A resolution calling for all  farm organizations that might be affected by the Ontario SPCA Act, including the OSPCA, to be part of peer reviews committees investigating a complaint involving a fellow farmer passed by a vote of 75 to 7.

Another resolution asked Ontario Pork to petition the office of the Attorney General of Ontario “to provide proper levels of oversight” for OSPCA inspectors. Eighty producers were in favour and only four were opposed.

Perth County delegate Stewart Skinner, the most outspoken delegate of the day, warned producers “Ontario SPCA has an agenda to destroy animal agriculture.”

Producers also sent another strong directive to Ontario Pork in a resolution demanding that “Ontario Pork represent producers in a more aggressive way” with organizations like the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Canadian Food Inspection Agency and OSPCA. In this debate, Skinner argued, “Even if the members say the sky is green when you know it is blue,” producers’ beliefs should be defended.

One of the most controversial issues facing the industry is the increasing pressure on the industry to ban gestation stalls. Producers voted 69 to 12 against a mandatory sow stall ban in Ontario. Earlier in the day, Humane Society International/Canada, an animal rights organization that is an offshoot offshoot of the Humane Society of the United States, thanked Quebec-based Olymel for its decision to phase out gestation stalls by 2022. BF