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Canadians have until May 3rd, 2024 to make their concerns heard when it comes to improving the welfare of cattle raised for beef. As a first step to updating the national Codes of Practice for Beef Cattle, the National Farm Animal Care Council is asking for public input on their top three welfare concerns associated with beef cattle production.
The WHS has gone ahead and flagged our main welfare concerns below. We encourage supporters to fill out the survey highlighting any of the below concerns for the best chance at changing some of these outdated and inhumane practices. We encourage Canadians to fill out the survey in their own words, and to stay polite in addressing your concerns.
Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YTDBMGN
For context, 78% of Manitoba’s beef cattle are found on cow and calf operations. At these operations, female cows are raised in large pastures where they birth and care for their calves. Here they stay together foraging in herds until the calves are roughly 6-8 months, at which time they are deemed ‘feeder calves’ and are moved to a feedlot operation to continue growing for slaughter. On these feedlots, cattle from multiple producers are mixed together by the hundreds to thousands. Cattle have no opportunity to forage or roam. They are fed high caloric grain diets instead of natural roughage greenery, and their only purpose is to fatten up as quickly as possible. At any given time, Manitoba has roughly 450,000 head of cattle, making our province the third largest for cattle production in Canada.
What are the welfare concerns?
Concern one: Calves born into the beef industry undergo painful invasive procedures with little to no pain control. When calves are under 8 weeks of age, they are disbudded, meaning the cells that stimulate horn growth are destroyed, most commonly by using a hot iron to burn the living tissue attached to the skull of the calf. This is an incredibly painful procedure and is often justified as a safety precaution to prevent cattle from injuring one another when housed in densely crowded feedlots. Pain control is currently not required for disbudding calves. It is only required to be given when mature cattle are dehorned.
What we are asking: Require all calves undergoing disbudding to have adequate pain control and local anesthetic provided by a licensed veterinarian before the disbudding procedure occurs. Require an immediate prohibition on the dehorning of any beef cattle over 8 weeks of age.
Concern two: Despite the Canadian government requiring all cattle to have ear tags for individual and farm identification, many producers still choose to brand their cattle. The branding process is incredibly painful as a hot iron is held against the skin of the calf, leaving a permanent scar or ‘brand’. This procedure is only done for convenience purposes for producers. There is no justification to continue the branding of beef cattle when all information needed can be found on the ear tag of an animal. There is currently no requirement for cows or calves to be provided with pain control when getting branded.
What we are asking: Require an immediate ban on the branding of beef cattle in Canada.
Concern three: Currently, calves are only required to receive pain control when castrated over 6 months of age. Castration is an incredibly invasive and painful procedure that often occurs to calves younger than 6 months.
What we are asking: Require all calves under 6 months of age to have adequate pain control provided by a licensed veterinarian before and after the castration procedure.
Concern four: Cattle raised in feedlots in Canada do not have sufficient protection from the elements or natural disasters. When flooding occurs there often no dry areas for the cattle to stand. Likewise, extreme cold and natural disasters often occur with beef cattle having no ability to protect themselves.
What we are asking: Require all feedlot and cow/calf operations to have adequate housing and sheltering available for all cattle at any given time, including dry standing and bedded resting areas.
Concern five: Many feedlot operations in Canada are often densely packed with no ability for the cattle to graze and consume a natural diet filled with roughage. Cows instead are fed high caloric, nutrient dense grain feed with no other enrichment to fulfil their days in the feedlot.
What we are asking: Require an immediate transition from densely packed feedlots, to grass fed cattle operations that permit cows to graze naturally.
To learn more about Canada’s Beef Cattle industry, visit: https://spca.bc.ca/programs-services/farm-animal-programs/farm-animal-production/beef-cattle/
The Codes of Practice for Beef Cattle can be found here: https://www.nfacc.ca/beef-cattle-code