by JIM ALGIE
New funding for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) may not significantly increase service in Grey and Bruce counties, where the group has fences to mend with area farmers, one area farm leader says.
“It would be nice to have a good relationship with them; it’s just difficult considering the history,” Bruce County Federation of Agriculture president Pat Jilesen said, Tuesday, in an interview from his Paisley-area sheep farm.
The 130-year-old, charitable society enforces animal welfare laws in Ontario but closed its Hanover office earlier this year to save costs. That left area municipalities and police agencies wondering who would fill gaps created by the absence of resident OSPCA officials in one of the province’s most important livestock regions.
A $5.5 million boost in provincial funding for the society announced in late October came with a promise from Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur to deliver “specialized livestock training for investigators in the agricultural sector.” But concrete plans for the new money await recommendations from a society allocation committee made up of representatives of 50 OSPCA affiliate groups and the province, society communications manager Alison Cross said in an interview.
“We’ll be providing additional training for our officers,” Cross said. New training material is “currently in development,” she said.
Ministry funding will go mainly to support a new, 24-hour, dispatch service for animal distress calls and is available province-wide, she said.
Despite the Hanover office closing, “we haven’t left Grey-Bruce,” Cross said. She referred to existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) arrangements with province-wide livestock commodity groups. Dairy Farmers of Ontario as well as hog, chicken and beef cattle producers’ groups all have such arrangements, she said. As well, talks have begun with groups representing sheep and veal farmers, Cross said.
“You can still contact us and, if it’s something regarding our MOUs, we will dispatch the appropriate officer or we will contact the local municipality and law enforcement,” she said.
Jilesen knows of no animal welfare investigations involving commercial farms in Grey-Bruce since the society closed its Hanover operations and there have been no calls from police or municipalities. He doubts recently announced changes mean much, if any, significant change for the region.
“The municipalities had nowhere to turn,” he said of federation initiatives last spring which provided contacts for area municipal and police officials facing complex, and potentially costly, animal welfare investigations. “We put them in one room and we had a good plan going forward with the understanding that there were no longer services available from the SPCA,” Jilesen said, referring to widespread confusion over the circumstances.
Area farmers have long sought improved training for animal welfare investigators. Jilesen has asked for details but has yet to see society plans for the announced training. Current training for investigators includes a week of livestock instruction, Cross said. BF
Comments
l seriously doubt the closing is due to cutting costs, in some rural communities seeing a OSPCA vehicle driving down the road is akin to a Wind-Energy truck, not very well received.
Training? Can you train a Peta Person to eat a steak and wear a fur at the same time, I done think so. They have their ideas and it doesn,t include raising animals for food or pets , and yet maybe we can give them a week training course that should change their mind. They figure the taxpayers will pay for them to go to the farms and take their animals away and make good money looking after them for a few weeks , they make more for those few weeks than the farmer would make for the whole year. Nice to know someone will come pounding your door down in the middle of the night to rescue those animals that is resting more comfortable than you are. Sounds like Germany back in the late thirties and during world war 11 , but they are taking your animals today.
Some research and observations show that pulsating wind turbine noise initiates the "fight or flight response" in some animals. Therefore, it could be said that pulsating amplitude modulation wind turbine noise is "cruel and unusual treatment" for livestock. Furthermore, it could then be said we either ban pulsating wind turbine noise in the vicinity of livestock or we ban livestock food production or race horses in that area. I am really surprised the gov't didn't cover that issue when they amended the Green Energy Act to prevent building a residence within 550 meters of a proposed wind turbine. My guess is they really don't value food production higher than they do creating an extremely expensive energy system that is not needed.
Post new comment