Earlier this week, Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia, Canada, announced that the province would be adopting improved legal protections for cats and dogs. This announcement comes after two recent high-profile cases where officials with the BC SPCA raided a puppy mill and a breeding facility and seized 150 animals.
The new law – anticipated to take effect in 2017 – will require breeders to be registered and licensed with the province. Mercy For Animals applauds Premier Clark for her swift and decisive action to improve the legal protections for cats and dogs.
However, cows and other farmed animals in BC continue to languish in factory farms and slaughterhouses without adequate legal protections. In May 2014, MFA conducted an investigation of Chilliwack Cattle Sales—Canada’s largest dairy factory farm.
The chilling footage revealed workers viciously kicking, punching, and beating cows; workers hitting cows with chains, metal pipes, canes, and rakes; sick and injured cows suffering from oozing infections and gruesome injuries; workers using chains and tractors to lift sick and injured cows into the air by their necks; and workers gleefully poking and squeezing festering wounds, ripping clumps of hair out of cows’ sensitive tails, and punching bulls in the testicles.
Although MFA reported the cruelty to law enforcement immediately after the investigation, it is now 19 months later, and the authorities have still not taken any action to prosecute the animal abusers.
Last year, BC agricultural minister Norm Letnick announced that the province would reference the Dairy Code of Practice in the BC Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, but without giving it the force of law. The Dairy Code of Practice sets forth certain minimum requirements regarding the treatment and welfare of Canada’s dairy cows.
Mercy For Animals is now calling for all provinces, including BC, to give the Dairy Code of Practice the force of law in their provincial animal cruelty legislation, in order to ensure that dairy cows receive a basic level of care and humane handling.
Cows are just as capable of experiencing pain and suffering as our beloved dogs and cats, and deserve the same legal protections. While we continue to eagerly await BC officials’ prosecution of the Chilliwack animal abusers, the best things that compassionate individuals can do to protect cows and other farmed animals from needless suffering and abuse is to leave them off your plate. Visit ChooseVeg.ca for more information.
