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The Canadian pork industry vowed to phase out inhumane gestation crates by July 1st 2024. In 2019, the deadline was extended to 2029 but it was not updated in the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Codes of Practice. This means producers currently confining pigs to gestation crates are violating Manitoba’s Animal Care Act without penalty. Learn more about what this means for Manitoba’s pigs.

Background

The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) is the main governing industry body that provides Codes of Practice for every major animal agriculture industry in Canada. NFACC’s Codes of Practice outline every aspect related to raising farmed animals and provide basic outlines for a minimum level of care that is expected to be followed by producers and their staff. However, it is important to note that none of the NFCC’s Codes of Practice are legally binding. This means that if any producer is found violating any aspect of the Codes of Practice, they cannot be legally prosecuted.

The issue at a glance

In response to growing public pressure, in 2014, the Canadian pork industry vowed to have all producers phase out of using inhumane gestation crates by 2024. This was outlined in NFCC’s 2014 publication, Codes of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs. The document stated that by July 1, 2024, all Canadian pig producers must have transitioned away from using gestation crates.

In 2019, the NFACC’s pig codes underwent their five-year review where a committee recommended that producers be granted an extension until 2029 to phase out of gestation crates.

The recommendation was never updated into NFACC’s pig codes, and though the extension has been adopted by the pork industry, it has never officially been written into the codes of practice for pigs.

What does this mean?

Many provincial jurisdictions, including Manitoba, have legislation which states that any activities outlined in NFACC’s Codes of Practice are considered acceptable and not punishable by law. NFACC’s Codes for Pigs does not currently state that producers have until 2029 to phase away from gestation crates. The codes currently state that producers have until July 1, 2024. Technically, under Manitoba’s Animal Care Act and other provincial jurisdictions with similar legislation, producers that have not phased away from gestation crates as of July 1, 2024, are not following the Codes for Pigs and therefor not protected under provincial legislation.

Further, NFACC’s Codes for Pigs has currently begun its 10-year review, with final amendments to the codes likely happening within the next year. There is significant reason for animal welfare groups to believe that the 2029 extension will be incorporated into the amendments, making it legal once again for producers to use gestation crates until 2029.

Why you should care

There is currently no legal liability or incentive for producers to adhere to the Codes of Practice, which often outline the bare minimum recommendations for raising farmed animals at best.

Further, it has been 10 years since pork producers vowed to stop using gestation crates, and now that the deadline has come and gone, producers continue to be granted a five-year extension with no penalty. There is no reason to believe that producers will meet the 2029 extension, despite being given 15 years to do so.

Gestation crates continue to be one of the cruelest products of industrialized agriculture. Sows are impregnated continuously and spend the majority of their pregnancy in restrictive gestation crates where they cannot, walk, turn around, be with their babies, or have any quality of life. The physical and psychological distress sows experience in these crates is beyond imaginable and is in no way justifiable. Millions of sows will now be subjected to unfathomable cruelty because of this unnecessary and unjustifiable extension.

What can you do?