by MATT MCINTOSH
An expert panel convened by Canada's egg industry has condemned the activities in a video depicting several instances of abusive handling practices at two Alberta poultry farms.
But the way the information is presented has at least one panel member noting it’s “sometimes difficult to tell what’s really going on.”
The Egg Farmers of Canada commissioned the U.S.-based Center for Food Integrity to organize a video-review panel following the Saturday airing of several minutes of video footage taken at Kuku and Creekside Grove farms, two large poultry operations near Edmonton Alberta.
The video segments appeared on CTV’s investigative journalism program W5 and showed dead birds crammed with live ones in small cages, employees killing chicks by hitting their heads on hard surfaces, and other practices that do not fall in line with the animal welfare policies established by the National Farm Animal Care Council.
W5 obtained the footage from animal rights group Mercy for Animals Canada. A farm employee working undercover for the organization recorded the footage.
The Center for Food Integrity panel, which was made up of one animal welfare expert from the United States and two from Canada, released its conclusions to the public and the egg industry Monday afternoon. (Center for Food Integrity is a non-profit organization based in the United States. Its members include U.S. farming and agricultural commodity organizations as well as agriculture and agri-food businesses).
In its report, the panel concludes that the video does show "unethical and irresponsible treatment of animals."
"I disagree with everything I saw in the video," said Stewart Ritchie, one of the panelists and a member of Canadian Poultry Consultants Ltd in a Center news release. "In my opinion, witnessing this type of cruelty demands prompt attention. This should have been dealt with immediately."
But the experts also noted that the video clips were short and jumbled, and sometimes showed conflicting situations, such as cages that in one scene appeared overcrowded and not so in the next.
“In these types of video productions they go back and forth between scenes so quickly that it’s sometimes difficult to tell what’s really going on,” said Candace Croney, an animal welfare expert with Purdue University, in the Center news release.
Crystal Mackay, executive director of Farm Food Care Ontario, also notes that the group "condensed five weeks of video into five minutes, and developed a PR campaign before releasing it to CTV."
One of the campaign’s goals may be to discourage people from eating meat, she says. While the video shows “there are clearly some major issues at the two farms,” she adds that it’s important “to remember that MFAC is an animal rights group that doesn't believe in eating meat at all."
Mercy For Animals’ U.S. website describes the organization as “dedicated to preventing cruelty to farmed animals and promoting compassionate food choices and policies.”
Mackay says the group's American counterpart has used similar tactics on farms in the United States, and that some states actually have introduced laws banning undercover videos and photos to halt the practice.
Canada, however, has no such legislation.
Keeping the industry transparent, she says, will help show the public that there's a more positive side to the egg industry. She cites Farm and Food Care’s virtual farm tour series, which offers web browsers the opportunity to view operations of all kinds, including conventional and free-range egg farms as an example of how the agriculture industry reaches out to the public and offers insight into its activities. Farm and Food Care also encourages livestock farmers to discuss animal welfare with their employees and have employees sign an “animal care code of conduct,” she adds.
But one animal welfare specialist expressed concern about the industry’s initial response to the video.
According to W5's report, the owner of the two farms refused to comment on the video. Egg Farmers of Alberta also refused an on-camera interview, but did agree to watch the video.
After viewing the footage, however, Egg Farmers of Alberta declined any further interviews. Organization spokespeople said that they needed more time to study the footage before they could comment.
"Some don't want to say anything, but the industry needs to be willing to talk about [the video] if they want to retain a level of social autonomy," says Jeffery Spooner, a social scientist with the University of British Columbia's animal welfare program. "Animal welfare is the responsibility of all stakeholders, and the public has a right to ask."
Prior to the report airing on CTV, Egg Farmers of Canada also released a security advisory telling producers that representatives from the media were visiting egg operations in Alberta, and instructed producers not to allow the media access to their farms.
The W5 report asserts the advisory indicated that no one in the egg industry wanted to discuss the video’s contents. Mackay says otherwise.
"Many organizations release these kinds of advisories when things like this happen," explains Mackay. "They are designed to let farmers know ‘hey, these people are affecting your industry and we need to verify what’s happening.’ It doesn't automatically mean the industry is trying to hide from the public."
The W5 report also noted that KuKu Farms is a major egg supplier to Burnbrae Farms, which sells eggs to McDonald's Canada.
On Monday, McDonald’s issued a prepared statement declaring that it had never purchased eggs from KuKu Farms and none of its eggs are sourced from Alberta.
The statement included a letter from Burnbrae president Margaret Hudson addressed to Jeff Kroll, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited senior vice-president, national supply chain. In the letter, Hudson confirms Burnbrae has bought eggs from KuKu Farms in the past, but "do not sell any product of any kind to McDonald's Canada which is sourced from Alberta."
While waiting for a full investigation, Burnbrae Farms has also ceased buying eggs from KuKu Farm, Hudson notes.
In a statement released Monday, Peter Clarke, chair of Egg Farmers of Canada says he shares in the public’s response to the video and that the images shown are “unacceptable.”
“However, I object to any perception that this is in any way common, tolerated or representative,” he adds. “It simply is not.”
Clarke notes that the industry is investigating the video and will ensure corrective actions will be taken. BF
-- with files from Better Farming staff
Comments
I find Crystal MacKay comment rather interesting, her organization has a face book that I use to frequent often until I was banned from it about a month ago for commenting on laying hens being raised in cages. I wasn't the first person to banned for talking about their concerns on the site. I see organizations like Farm and Food Care as being a part of the problem not as part of the solution. They are propaganda machines tasked with a job to try and convince consumers that a laying hen is way more happier crammed in a cage where it can't spread it wings and can't perch properly and has no natural sunlight. As a farmer I know that a free run chicken is much more content then its caged counterpart, that's not rocket science, it just common sense.
Clearly Manitoba egg farmers have realized that the days of raising hens in cages is over and that consumers demand more humane production methods. I applaud them for making this move to cage free hen production. I use to have a 500 hen flock and still would if we hadn't been harassed by the Egg Farmers of Ontario thugs (Inspectors) I know hens can be raised free run with out any issue and I can take you to much larger farmers with free range hens that are very successful, so to use the argument that the quality of life of a caged hen is equal or superior to a free run hen is utter nonsense.
Farmers went to caged systems because it requires a much smaller barn and it makes their work easier, let be honest its all about dollar and cents.
Agriculture is changing and farmers need to adapt who better to make these progressive changes then the wealthiest farmers in Canada, Canadian Egg Farmers its time to come into the 21st century and produce a product that is ethical.
At the prices Canadian Producers are paid per dozen there should be no hardship on their part to modernize their production methods, after all if these mega egg farms can't handle as many hens in a free range system then it will only pave the way for new entrants to an industry that has seen far to much consolidation.
Sean McGIvern
Sean McGivern
Really they should know better . There really is no excuse for some one in SM who is next to guaranteed a profit by the system . This is where their provincial and national orgs should have the power to strip them of their quota with no monetary compensation . These organizations do do inspections do they not ? The quota should not be sold but given to new entrants . Some peole are not allowed to own pets because of poor or bad treatment of their animals so why should these owners be allowed to run multi million dollar +++ operations and treat their animals that way , or allow employees to treat them that way ? Wrong is wrong .
Disgusting to say the least and there is no excuse .
The Alberta Egg Board's first reaction is to hide.
Their potential customer's first reaction (McDonalds) is to distance themselves.
Nothing surprising there, the Egg Board shoots itself in the foot then everyone tries to say it's bad but it only happens on that one farm.
That's like trying to convince the public that every one of our Senators is honest...except Mr. Duffy.
There's probably a lesson here that can be used to teach how not to handle these things.
Sean is right, "agriculture is changing and farmers need to adapt", whether they like it or not.
Are factory farms really farms or are they really just another business that should be monitored by Consumer and Corporate Affairs
Farms that hire 1 or more are not a Family Farm they are and will always be a Business and no more. SM farms were great in their day but now they are ran even at the Board level by these Businesses that are no Family Farms , which by the way only look at buying every piece of land in sight and beyond and taking all the production of milk, eggs or feathers for themselves and hope than they are the only one left to supply the product to consumers . Its time for the government to help get the farming back into the hands of many people not just a few Giants. I for one liked the SM for farmers to help get their product to the processor acting as a go between but when the big guys keep changing the rules for themselves and no all the farmers , it has outlived its usefulness .
i have never heard of a 500 hen flock being taken away...what did you do?
g kimble
To maintain a 500 flock you had to have them before 1983.
I never said it was taken away, I was regulated out of business. I was told I couldn't house other animals in the same barn as my 500 hens because of bio security, In the summer my hens were outside and that was fine but in the winter they were housed in the upper level of my 100yr old bank barn and the EFO thugs said I needed to build a hallway and only enter my hen house from the outside and I need to build a room to change my outside clothes in before entering the hen house. We spent 2 years trying to get our brand new egg grading station approved. Ever inspection the CFIA found some issues that wasn't an issue before, it was never ending. The whole system is designed to for big scale mono culture farms not mixed family farms.
Sean McGivern
you were very lucky to have had the 500 flock ....sometimes it is better to "work within the system" than to fight every request......do you actually have an on farm grading station ....that would be a dream come true for some small scale farmers.
g kimble
I don,t believe most of those videos that are put out by those animal groups. How is it all little pieces of video and for all we know they could have set it up themselves , at the very least she should have got in contact with the OSPCA and had them go in and look the barns over. Why they wait to get W5 involved and not take action if they were that concern for the birds and then getW5 involved . If the people ran their barns like that they should be ran out of the business and get some good fines or whatever.
But, on the other hand, why should people believe videos and/or TV ads put out by farmers who, obviously, have a substantial vested interest in putting the best-possible spin on their version of things?
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Anything negative will generate far more media coverage nowdays,its just the world we live in.
Egg producers could mandate a full ban on caged layers and it wouldn't cause a ripple on the news coverage and the Animal rights people would just move onto their next target.
To clarify, the goal of Farm & Food Care's social media sites is to encourage good constructive dialogue on food and farming. People aren't blocked for commenting on specific farm practices, but are if they disregard respectful posting guidelines.
Farm & Food Care advocates for informed decisions, not positions, products or production types. Check out virtualfarmtours.ca to see every type of hen housing option as an example. The goal is to show consumers what the various choices are with pros and cons of each, you pick and you pay accordingly.
Crystal Mackay
Crystal MacKay, says people are only blocked for disrespecting posting guidelines. I would like to know what those posting guide lines are ? and i would like to know what i said that caused me to disrespect those guidelines. I emailed her office asking why i was banned from the facebook page the day I was no longer able to comment on the page and you guessed it no one returned my email.
I guess its just like the Alberta egg case some one is undertaking an internal review and i am sure will get be getting back to me in the future, but unable to comment at this time lol.
Why should I expect an organization like Farm and Food Care, to actually be open to dialogue, when there bought and paid for by big business and big Ag to white wash the unacceptable outdated farm practices that consumers are horrified by.
I am sure that if consumers on mass knew how the eggs they were consuming are being produced they would be more then willing to pay a cents more to ensure basic animal welfare standards were being met.
Its becoming more and more clear to me and many others that the marketing board are simply not fit to police their own industry they have a glaring conflict of interest and need 3rd party supervision, they have had almost 40 years to get it right and have proven their inability to be able to properly monitor and maintain any level of responsibility. The sad part of this whole situation is that some low ranking egg board employee will be the fall guy to take the heat and the industry will drive on with little or no change.
Sean McGivern
PFO
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