The driver of a transport truck has been charged
with careless driving after his truck carrying about 800 turkeys tipped and
rolled upside down. The turkeys were being transported to a slaughterhouse in
London, Ontario. A local organization that is dedicated to rescuing farmed
animals worked quickly to save as many animals as possible, but estimated that about
half the birds were killed in the crash or crushed to death under the weight of
other birds in the overcrowded trailer.
This incident, along with similar tragedies that occur
frequently across the country, highlights the urgent need to modernize Canada’s
archaic livestock transportation regulations. Shockingly, livestock drivers in
Canada are not required to have any animal handling training or even to know
their responsibilities to ensure compliance with livestock transportation
regulations.
On top of that, Canada’s livestock transport regulations are the
worst in the Western world, and lag far behind both the European Union and the
United States. Sadly, farmed animals are often trucked thousands of kilometres
for up to 52 hours without any food, water, rest, or protection from the
elements, resulting in the deaths of more than 8 million animals each year.
A recent
undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals exposed the torture that
millions of animals face in Canada’s livestock transport industry. The sickening
hidden-camera video shows pigs too sick or injured to even stand being
painfully shocked with electric prods, kicked, beaten, and violently rammed
with heavy gates; and frightened animals transported hundreds of kilometres in
sweltering heat, suffering from heat stress and dehydration.
Watch the undercover video footage here:
There is no excuse for this kind of gratuitous animal abuse in a
civilized society. Please sign
the petition here calling on Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz to
swiftly update Canada’s livestock transportation regulations to prevent the
needless suffering of turkeys, pigs, and other farmed animals.