Cover Story, Part 3: Developing a model for animal welfare assessments

Monday, August 5, 2013

When the National Farm Animal Care Council's animal assessment model is released, existing programs can be tweaked to see how they fit. But for livestock groups that may present some challenges

by SUSAN MANN

A national farm animal welfare group is developing a standardized model for on-farm animal care assessments, and livestock groups with their own programs are closely watching the process.

Once the National Farm Animal Care Council's animal assessment model is released, likely next year, some groups say they will review it to see how it meshes with their program, while others are expected to continue using their own.

Crystal Mackay, executive director for Farm & Food Care Ontario, says the concept of assessments is developing worldwide and individual companies are also implementing their own audit programs. The Council's inclusion of other supply chain partners, such as retailers, food service representatives and processors, to develop the model for what should be in the assessment is critical. "Then the existing programs can be tweaked to be sure they fit that model," she says.

Ryder Lee, manager of federal-provincial relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, says the Council's model outlines a process groups can follow when developing an assessment plan rather than telling industries what content must be included. Beef and dairy don't yet have animal care assessment programs for their farmers, but dairy is currently doing a pilot program to test the Council's assessment model on 30 farms across Canada.

Lee says it's up to the cattlemen's board and the provincial organizations to decide if the beef industry will implement an assessment program but "it sure looks like that's the direction animal agriculture is moving in."

Jackie Wepruk, the Council's general manager, says their assessment model is a framework that livestock groups could use once it's finalized.

But just how does the animal care council's assessment model fit into the livestock industry? Catherine Scovil, assistant executive director for the Canadian Pork Council, says that when industries were developing their food safety programs, there was a generally accepted approach to building them based on the HACCP (hazard analysis critical control points) model and looking to mitigate physical, chemical and biological hazards.

But that's not the case for developing an animal care assessment. "There isn't a nice model to follow," she says. "What the farm animal care council is doing is pulling this all together and determining what makes sense for the future on how to develop animal care assessments."

Almost all livestock groups now have codes of practice or are updating their codes. Many groups also have animal care assessment protocols based on those codes that are woven in alongside their on-farm food safety programs. They do so to make it easier for farmers to follow requirements and record information, and so on-farm inspections for both programs can take place at the same time.

Steve Leech, national program manager for Chicken Farmers of Canada, says the objective of the Council's assessment model and Chicken Farmers' auditable animal care program is the same – to demonstrate what farmers are doing for animal care.

Chicken Farmers is watching the Council's process closely. It will determine how to integrate the two programs, he says.

Turkey Farmers of Canada is also watching how the pilot works out and then the organization's board will decide "how it meshes with what we think is the better alternative," says executive director Phil Boyd.

Peter Clarke, chairman of Egg Farmers of Canada, says that when they developed their assessment program, it was important to have one specifically for eggs and egg production. He won't comment on the Council's model since it isn't finalized yet.

Wepruk says the Council's assessment care model is needed because "one challenge with the development of programs has been consistent communications about those programs to those who are asking for animal care assessments," such as the retail and food service sectors.

For livestock groups that don't have animal care assessment programs, Wepruk says they will be able to use the council's model "without having to reinvent the wheel."

But, for groups with an assessment program, they have followed their own path in developing them. That means terminology – such as whether on-farm checkers are called inspectors, auditors or verifiers, the types of assessments performed, who does them and who was involved in the assessment programs' creation – may all be different, she says.

A multi-stakeholder committee is developing the Council's model and it draws on the experiences of livestock groups with animal care programs already, along with available research on how to measure animal welfare, Wepruk says.

On the surface, it would appear that measuring animal welfare is straightforward. Georgia Mason, Canada research chair in animal welfare at the University of Guelph, says animal care assessment details will vary from animal to animal. But typical factors that are included are ones that could cause hunger, thirst or physical discomfort (such as overly hot or cold environments, and uncomfortable or dirty surroundings that animals don't like); potential causes and risk factors for pain, injury or disease; and physical freedom for animals to show movement and perform important normal behaviours, such as frolicking and interacting socially for social species.

"At the same time, you need to show animals are not demonstrating lots of abnormal behaviour," such as repetitive conduct like pacing or feather pecking for poultry, she says.

Dig a little deeper, though, and all sorts of challenges become apparent. Thérése Beaulieu, assistant director of strategic communications for Dairy Farmers of Canada, notes that one of the dairy code requirements is that facilities must provide cows with comfort, warmth, dryness and traction. "Bare concrete is not acceptable as a resting surface," she says. That requirement is fairly clear, but how do you measure if something provides comfort, warmth, dryness and traction?

One way to measure dryness, the research suggests, is to put your knee on the cow's resting surface for 10 seconds and "if your knee is dry after 10 seconds, then it's dry," she says.

Dairy Farmers has financed research to determine how to measure requirements in the code, "the level of comfort of a cow and to see if the farmer needs to change anything on his farm," such as physical or management practices, she says.

As well, farmers testing the draft assessment for dairy are being asked to help determine if it makes sense, if it's difficult to do and whether it actually helps them manage their herd better. BF

SIDEBAR: Harmony Organic, where animal welfare is paramount
by SUSAN MANN

When it comes to animal welfare, organic dairy farmer Lawrence Andres is okay with being called an activist because he says he is one.

At the same time, he says he's realistic. During his 40 years of farming, Andres's philosophy has always been that "animals need to have a good life." But he also knows what is and isn't practical to give them that good life.

Animals, he says, are living creatures which express pain, joy and "have a strong emotional part in their life." Ignoring or suppressing animals' well-being is unethical, immoral and will cause them to get sick, he notes.

All livestock farmers need to "create a situation where (animal) well-being is number one because it has a real positive outcome on the economics," he says.

You can hear the passion in Andres's voice as he talks about the importance of animal welfare. He's a founding member of the Animal Welfare Task Force, a national committee for the organic livestock industry, which does ongoing reviews of national organic certification standards and suggests changes. The committee also distributes fact sheets and is trying to ensure the standards are more descriptive.

"We did this before it became a pressing issue in conventional agriculture," says Andres, a co-founder and now sole owner along with his wife, Mathilde, of Harmony Organic, an organic milk company. Andres also milks 125 cows in Kincardine Township, Bruce County.

During the past decade, animal welfare has moved to the forefront in conventional agriculture, he explains. That's partly because the livestock sector is being proactive in showing society it's being more transparent. At the same time, the sector is very nervous about animal rights organizations applying pressure on farmers to follow a rigid set of rules.

At Harmony Organic, animal care is paramount among the 14 farmers who supply the company with milk. "We go above and beyond to provide comfort and joy to our animals by allowing them to live out their natural behaviour," Harmony's website says. BF

SIDEBAR: Livestock assessment programs
by SUSAN MANN

Many livestock groups have been developing animal care assessment programs for a long time. Here's a list and some details of assessment programs currently in effect.

Turkey Farmers of Canada Flock Care program
Launch: 2007
Progress to date: 25 per cent of Canada's 560 turkey farmers are certified on the program. Certification by the end of the year is expected to increase to 50 to 75 per cent. Seventy-five per cent of farmers are certified for the on-farm food safety program.

Canadian Pork Council Animal Care Assessment program
Launch: 2005
Progress to date: Most pork producers must do the program as a condition of sale. In 2012, the program was linked to the pork industry's CQA (Canadian Quality Assurance) on-farm food safety program.

Chicken Farmers of Canada Animal Care Assessment program
Launch: 2009
Progress to date: The animal care audits are combined with the annual on-farm food safety program audits. More than 80 per cent of Canadian chicken farms are certified on the animal care program, while more than 96 per cent of farms are certified on the food safety one. The number of farms certified in the animal care program will increase this year to the same level as the food safety one.

Egg Farmers of Canada Animal Welfare program
Launch: 2004
Progress to date: The animal welfare program is a component of the egg industry's on-farm food safety program, called Start Clean Stay Clean. It requires all farmers to keep daily records and make them available when field inspectors employed by Egg Farmers of Canada do the annual farm audits. BF

SIDEBAR: Landmarks in animal welfare

Recent developments in animal welfare:

1999 – European Union passes agreement to phase out layer hen cages by 2012
2000 – McDonalds imposes animal welfare standards on its suppliers. Other food chains follow its lead
2005 – The OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) accepts the first ever global standards for animal welfare.
2006 – The International Finance Corporation releases a good practice note on animal welfare in livestock operations
2008 – The UN Food and Agriculture Organization holds an expert consultation on how best to help its member countries implement good animal welfare practices
2011 – The World Society for the Protection of Animals develops a new draft universal declaration on animal welfare, intended for presentation to the United Nations
2013 – Canadian Retail Council announces its members will ban pork
produced from animals raised in sow stalls by 2022. BF