Every few days we read in the paper, on social media, hear on the radio, or watch on television another report about pet abuse, animal cruelty, or people or even children not being looked after properly or being mistreated and sometimes killed.
We thank God that someone was watching and demanded that the situation was investigated. If only someone had blown the whistle a little sooner many of these cases would have been discovered quicker and distress, abuse and even death could have been prevented.
Recently a complaint was sent in about animal cruelty in Pontiac County. Inspections and farm visits were immediately carried out and no charges were laid. The inspectors only found well-fed and cared for animals living a lifestyle that was superior to many people. It was discovered later that every farm reported was within eyesight of Highway 148. This complaint was probably lodged by an animal activist and sent in anonymously.
Codes of practice are now carefully written for dairy, beef, hogs and poultry productions and delivered free to our Canadian farmers. These books are a result of proaction taken by the various farm groups.
Animal welfare is on the minds of farmers and the farm animal council was formed many years ago with funding from farmers to pro-actively educate them not only about the financial benefits of keeping all animals’ needs addressed but also the importance of informing consumers about how well the animals are looked after.
Any farmer will tell you that a stress-free animal is the most profitable animal. Some employers have still not applied this principal to people.
All Canadian dairy farms are now entered in the Canadian Quality Milk program which forces the farmer to monitor everything on the dairy farm from animal welfare to proper antibiotic use as prescribed by a veterinarian. These records are inspected yearly and must always be available.
Veterinarians, milk inspectors, breed association officials, minister of agriculture officials, provincial barn inspectors and even nutritionists have an eye on how animals are fed and cared for when they visit or pass by.
Every code of practice shows farmers how to body condition score an animal and this practice addresses how fat the animal is and what condition score it should have at different stages in production and gestation. (People should use this body scoring on their pets and themselves.)
If the animal is too fat then energy levels should be reduced in the feed. If the animal is too thin, then energy levels and nutrition density should be increased.
Some animal rights groups criticize farmers for using artificial insemination (AI) rather than the male member of the species. With AI, a farmer selects for health traits, temperament, milk production, longevity, hair colour, traits that result in better feet and legs, more or less fat in the milk of the offspring, the sex and size of the calf expected because heifer calves are smaller than bull calves and animals have fewer problems delivering their first calf if it is smaller.
If you look at the headstones as you walk through the graveyard, you will discover that too many of the pioneer women died as a teenager and were buried with their first child. When a farmer uses AI on the herd, animals are not bred until they are healthy and mature enough in size to safely deliver their first calf in nine months.
Through selective breeding and better nutrition, today’s animals produce twice the milk, a third of the greenhouse gas, grow twice as fast and are three times as efficient at converting feed that humans cannot eat into milk or meat than animals that lived on my grandfather’s farm.
Every September there are abandoned pets that come to our farm looking for a home, something to eat and a warm place to stay. This great increase in numbers seems to coincide with the time that summer vacationers return to their home in the city where pets are not welcome. I often wonder how well their children are looked after? When I go to a grocery store and see more aisle space dedicated to pet food than baby food, I also scratch my head.
Let’s all be more thoughtful and kind to our animals, our pets and our people too!
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon
on land that has been in
his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
