|
Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
|
|
Major grocery stores to phase out controversial sow gestation crates April 30, 2013 CTV News The Retail Council of Canada and eight major grocery chains will phase out controversial sow gestation crates in their pork supply chains in response to an undercover investigation at a Manitoba hog plant. Mercy for Animals Canada made its cruelty concerns public last December, and now has grocery stores on its side, including Safeway, Sobeys, Wal-Mart, Superstore and Costco. Hidden camera footage was taken during a three-month investigation at a Puratone plant in Manitoba’s Interlake. It documents the use of gestation crates— a practice that prevents pregnant pigs from turning around. Several other countries have banned them because their use is widely considered to be cruel. The grocery stores on board have committed to finding alternate housing options for the pigs that supply their products. Comment: Other grocers on board include Metro, Federated Co-operatives Limited, and Co-op Atlantic. Gestation crates are so inhumane they have been banned by the entire European Union, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as in nine US states. There’s a long wait ahead. In 2014, the revised Canadian pig code of practice was released. The Updated code requires that sows be housed in groups – with separate space for eating, sleeping, and eliminating – in all facilities built or rebuilt after July 1, 2014. This requirement may positively impact the welfare of hundreds of thousands of animals. While the code still allows the use of individual pens or stalls by July 1, 2024, since stalls have a life of 15 to 20 years, many additional facilities should have transitioned away, or be close to transitioning away, from crates by that date (although some could be in used up until 2033 if they were built or rebuilt last year!). Eventually, this new requirement should effectively lead to the full adoption of group housing systems by the pig industry. However, given the suffering endured by sows in gestation crates, and the fact that the public has been demanding the phase-out of sow stalls for many years, the phase-out period allowed by the new code seems unreasonably distant. We can only hope that the commitment of Maple Leaf to phase out gestation crates by 2017, as well as the one from all eight of Canada’s leading retailers to phase them out by 2022 and the bans happening in other countries, will help accelerate the transition to less cruel housing systems for sows. Toronto Pig Save The Save Movement We’re talking about the same issues decades later. Talk, protests, promises, undercover video; what, if anything has changed? Progress is an ongoing battle. 2022 CANADA ANIMAL KILL CLOCK https://www.animalclock.org/ca/ |