| home
| values
from The Aquarian,
Summer 2006
By SYD BAUMEL
extended online version Indecent Eggsposure: How Eggs are Laid in Canada -- by Syd Baumel   page 1 | page 2 Who's Minding the Hens? As permissive as it is, the Recommended Code of Practice is law, not recommendation, in Manitoba. Unfortunately, enforcement is strictly complaint-driven, according to the province's spokesperson, Gus Wruck, a veterinarian in the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. Those complaints arrive in Wruck's office via a confidential "Animal Care Hotline": (204) 945-8000. In an industry that exists in windowless rural buildings where neither the public, the media nor animal protection groups are welcome, such complaints can only come from insiders or break-and-enter activists. There has only been one complaint in five years, Wruck writes in an email interview. He further assures me that “registered egg farms in Manitoba are randomly inspected a minimum of once a year under the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency’s (CEMA) Animal Care Certification Program. The third party inspectors are the same individuals who conduct inspections under the national on-farm HACCP-based food safety program, Start Clean – Stay CleanTM. This program has been accredited by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.” (HACCP stands for “hazard analysis critical control points,” a widely used inspection protocol.) The program, Wruck elaborates, is based on the 2003 Code of Practice.
But Wruck's replies to my probing follow-ups leave many of my questions unanswered. For its part, CEMA ignores my emailed requests for information and when I call their office, their spokesperson, Bernadette Cox, refuses to talk to me, “because you're a known animal rights activist.” “Is that information available to anybody?” I ask her, jamming my foot in the door. “It's available to our producers.” “I see. It's not available to the public?” “Yeah. That's all I'm gonna say to you, Syd.” With help from Google and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), I do learn that – contrary to the impression given by Wruck's statements – CEMA's animal care program is voluntary and not accredited or overseen in any way by CFIA (a government agency). Only its Start Clean – Stay Clean program is accredited. Turning to Manitoba Egg Producers, my questions are met with the same ambiguous descriptions of the animal care program as Wruck's. In fact, General Manager Penny Kelly's language is virtually identical, as if government and industry are reading from the same playbook. ARM'S LENGTH?
Kelly does, however, disclose that “99 percent” of the province's registered egg producers participate in the Program – and all have passed. But in a 2003 story in the Manitoba Cooperator about CEMA's then new Animal Care Program I read: “There's no actual pass or fail, but a benchmark score to establish a satisfactory level of care will be developed, said Kelly.” So I ask Kelly what “passing” means today – perfect score? “E” for effort? “'Passing' means just that,” she replies cryptically. “The Program is subject to ongoing review and will continue to evolve. Similar to implementation of the national on-farm food safety program, I expect the 'bar' will continue to be raised to encourage excellence in animal care.” I press for clarification about where that bar now stands. “Would the registered barn secretly videotaped near Guelph last summer – LEL Farms – have passed?” I ask. “If not, what would have given it a failing grade?” I have pressed too hard. “I have attempted to address your questions in a straightforward and factual manner,” Kelly replies, “and see no merit in further dialogue.”
Putting the Chicken Before the Egg In 1999, following years of public and scientific opposition to battery cages, the European Union began to phase them out. They will be illegal in 2012. In the United States, animal protection groups from the Humane Society of the United States on down have persuaded a growing number of foodstore chains, restaurants, college campuses, cafeterias and corporations to boycott battery eggs. In Canada, the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals (CCFA) and the Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) are leading the charge to make life easier for the hardest working animal in agribusiness. In addition to publicizing the exposé of LEL Farms, they have:
Knowing how to read labels is key. If the label says “free run” and the egg producer follows the Recommended Code of Practice, the hens live indoors with access to nesting boxes. But they may “run” on as little as a square foot (144 square inches) of space per bird on a litterless, wire grid floor in flocks of thousands. With so many birds so densely housed, these free run hens may also need to have their beaks trimmed. If the label says “free range” and the producer follows the Code, the hens are free run (as above) with access to a well-protected outdoor area. But that access can consist of a single “pop-hole” in a barn full of thousands of hens that leads onto a tiny, grassless paddock. Short of firsthand information about a particular egg farm, the best assurance of humane animal care is third-party certification, whether certified organic, certified humane or both. Eggs that are certified organic by the Organic Producers Association of Manitoba (OPAM) or the USDA come from farms that must provide their hens a “sufficiently” generous free-range lifestyle. Unfortunately, the requirements are general – “sufficient room to move around,” “sufficient fresh air and daylight” – and make no mention of specific needs, such as nests and perches. Humane-society certified eggs are available in Manitoba and at least one other province, BC. Hens that lay WHS Certified (Winnipeg Humane Society) eggs must have at least two square feet (576 square inches) each, uncaged of course, and while outdoor access isn't required, “birds should be able to engage in natural behaviors such as dust bathing, wing flapping, preening, perching and nesting” with “access to well maintained litter.” Beak trimming is allowed if “all other efforts to control problem behaviour have proven unsuccessful.” Nature's Farm, a Steinbach company, produces two lines of WHS Certified eggs: “Free Run Vita-Eggs” and “Organic Omega3 Vita-Eggs.” According to the company's website, the hens live in “free-run ‘birdhouse’ aviaries....[that] incorporate natural features such as sheltered, darkened nest boxes, scratching and dustbathing areas, and elevated multi-level perches that enable the birds to roost, fly freely, and to ‘populate’ the vertical dimension of the birdhouse.” Unfortunately, even the most humanely produced commercial eggs involve needless killing of the newborn male chicks and the laying hens when they are no longer productive. Arguably, the only truly humane eggs come from backyard flocks or sanctuaries where the birds, like companion animals, are treated kindly all their natural lives.
Aquarian co-editor Syd Baumel is "a known animal rights activist" with close ties to the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals, AnimalWatch Manitoba, the Winnipeg Vegetarian Association, Eatkind.net and the Winnipeg Humane Society. |
Where
to buy kinder eggs in Manitoba
The Aquarian's Ethical Food Market
EGG-FREE
Learn More The Truth About Canada's Egg Industry (Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals) Chickenout.ca (Vancouver Humane Society) Canadian Agri-Food Research Council's Recommended Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pullets, Layers and Spent Fowl > BEYOND CANADA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:"Wegmans Cruelty": an undercover investigation of the immense egg barn of a leading American grocery chain is the basis of an outstanding 27-minute documentary that lays bare the secrets of the battery egg industry (streaming video or download) Behind the Label: "Animal Care Certified" (by Peter Singer and Jim Mason) Battery Hens (United Poultry Concerns, USA) Eggindustry.com (Compassion Over Killing, USA) No Battery Eggs (Humane Society of the United States) Egg-laying
Hens (Compassion in World Farming, UK)
|