An editorial in a Southwestern Ontario newspaper observes that MFA Canada’s undercover investigations have had a significant impact on the country’s factory farming system.
The article states that MFA Canada’s investigations have “forced sectors such as poultry and pork to defend and/or distance themselves and their producer organization members from the practices of the farms on which its undercover agents had shot footage.”
The practices in question have been documented on six randomly selected factory farms across the country, and they have shocked and horrified the Canadian public.
Mutilating screaming pigs without painkillers, grinding up trays full of live chicks, and confining chickens in barren metal cages so small they can’t even stretch their wings for their entire miserable lives are among the practices the industry has been forced to defend.
The industry has attempted to distance itself from the gratuitous violence and blatant neglect documented each time we have gone undercover. The culture of cruelty is so pervasive inside factory farms that animal abusers busted in two of our investigations now face animal cruelty charges.
The author of the Southwestern Ontario article advises farmers to smarten up, counselling that “Mercy for Animals isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The best defence against their efforts is for farmers to do the best they can on their farms.” On those points, we agree.
Each time we sit down to eat, we as consumers can send a powerful message that treating animals as mere profit-making machines is not acceptable. Visit ChooseVeg.ca for more information.