Farm Animal Transport
Dogs trapped in cars on a hot day. We hate to see it and we get upset and annoyed when we do – we call the police or run into the mall to call security or we illegally break open the car in an attempt to release the animal. Leaving pets in a car on a hot day is against the law in many areas. Many cars now have temperature control which keeps the car and our pets cool for a short time.
But some animals aren’t so lucky. Farm animals in Canada are allowed to spend hours in the scorching heat with no water. Chickens for 28 hours, 28 hours for horses and pigs, 72 hours for day-old chicks and 36 hours for all other animals
Why do we pamper some animals and ourselves but ignore the plight of others?
We are all sentient beings with the same feelings. Is it because ‘they are going to be killed anyway so it doesn’t matter?’ Or is it ‘out of sight, out of mind’?
Check out this video from Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals – Creature Comforts. You will see better choices for transportation at the end of the film.
Perhaps it’s ‘I can’t do anything about it so I don’t want to know’. But can we? If we have the courage to look through the window and see and empathize, perhaps we can try to change the system.
Email the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Kody Blois and request that animal transport times are still too long and also request that consideration is given for hot and cold temperatures. Also write to your own MP requesting improved transportation times and conditions.
Take a few minutes to empathize with the animals forced to endure these conditions.
Two young piglets in search of fresh air poke their noses out of the sides of a transport trailer. These young animals do not know they will be transported for more than five hours from Quebec to Toronto, Ontario. . Julie LP / We Animals
The new laws allow animals to continue to be transported for very long periods of time without food, rest or water. For instance, veterinary recommendations stipulate a 12-hour travel limit for laying hens. Still, the new laws allow laying hens to be transported for up to 28 hours without food, rest and water.
The regulations allow animals to be transported without food, water or rest for:
- 12 hours for any compromised animals
- 24 hours maximum without access to safe water for broiler chickens, spent laying hens and rabbits; and 28 hours maximum without access to feed and rest
- 28 hours for horses and pigs
- 72 hours for day-old chicks
- 36 hours for all other animals
Farm animals are transported in extreme heat and cold in Canada. The new transportation laws do not require trucks be maintained at a certain temperature or that amenities, such as on-board food, water or fans, be used.
The new regulations also allow transporters to continue to use electric prods on farm animals.
An anxious piglet sits inside a transport trailer, fear outweighing the need for sleep. 6000 piglets are being transported inside this trailer to another farm due to a lack of space at the initial site. Quebec Canada. Credit: Julie LP/We Animals Media.
Canadian Horse Defence Coalition
Horse Transport
An animal transport truck arrives at an airport. It is one of five that evening, carrying horses that will be moved into crates and onto a plane destined for Japan, where they will be slaughtered to become sashimi. The plane was not scheduled to leave until hours later the following morning. Edmonton International Airport, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 2024. Jo-Anne McArthur / HSI Canada / We AnimalsDescription: Air shipments of live horses destined for slaughter in Japan occur regularly throughout the year from three Western Canadian airports, including this one in Edmonton, Alberta. According to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reports, more than 2,500 live horses, one to three years of age are exported to Japan annually, with each flight carrying approximately 100 animals. CFIA regulations allow a maximum journey of 28 hours without feed, water, or rest, from the time of loading at the farm or feedlot to offloading at the destination, yet some journeys have reportedly lasted over 32 hours. After leaving the feedlot, the horses spend several hours in transport trailers before being unloaded at the airport, inspected, and reloaded into shipping crates. Three or four horses are crowded into each crate, with no room to turn around or lie down. Then the crates are covered with netting that can restrict the horses’ heads or other body parts that may protrude from the small crates. The horses are loaded onto a cargo jet for departure several hours later. On this occasion, workers at Edmonton International Airport prepared empty crates in the late afternoon for the arrival of five semi-trucks filled with horses. The trucks began arriving around 8:30 PM to load the horses onto a flight departing for Japan at 6:00 am the following morning. The horses waited inside the trucks on the tarmac for several hours before being unloaded into an inspection building. Though obscured from view, their whinnies and stamping feet were audible from the public roadside over 200 meters away. Even before the trucks’ arrival, intense security was present, actively hindering attempts to document or observe the shipping process and blocking publicly accessible areas. Horses were still only at the beginning stage of unloading at 11:30 PM, hours before their impending 10 to 12-hour flight to Japan. These flights routinely stop to refuel in Anchorage, Alaska, subjecting the horses to further trauma and risk of injury during this extra takeoff and landing.