While some may think it is going overboard to appease a certain faction of the consumer groups, others think it’s the thing to do to make sure farmers always give the utmost of care to their animals, while showing others the proof is in the pudding.
Dickson Gould, the chair of the Canadian Pork Council’s Animal Care Technical Group says Canada’s revised Pig Code of Practice is a verification of the high standards of care Canadian pork producers provide their animals.
The revision of Canada’s Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs was completed in the spring of 2014.
The Canadian Pork Council’s Animal Care Technical Group is in the process of incorporating the revised code into the Animal Care Assessment component of the Canadian Quality Assurance Program.
Gould says the Pig Code of Practice is a transparent reflection of the high standards that Canadian pork producers provide to their animals.
“I think it’s a verification process of the high animal welfare standards that Canadian producers provide their animals and a documented process of what was going on,” he said. “I think it’s important that the Canadian pork industry is also demonstrating our commitment to best practices driven by science, and meeting the assessment of society changes.”
He says the development of the revised Animal Care Assessment started in the fall of 2014. It’s a fairly major undertaking and lots of diligent evaluation of the process to ensure each requirement is assessed individually and objectively.
“Our expectation is that the launch of this revised Animal Care Program is probably going to be coming out in 2017,” said Gould. “But only after doing a comprehensive pilot project completed on farm to make sure we have all the kinks worked out and it’s totally functional.”
Gould says the program is a verification of the high standards Canadian pork producers provide their animals and it’s an educational continuous improvement program.  •
— By Harry Siemens