Dear Sir:
The videos and news reports on the physical abuse and terrorizing of dairy cows on B.C.’s largest dairy farm was so sickening that I called the BC SPCA to find out what an ordinary person can do to prevent such things from happening to the animals that provide our food.
I wasn’t surprised but I was disappointed to read on their website that the Canadian Codes of Practice for the care and handling of farm animals have yet to be adopted into B.C. law as they have in some other provinces.
Animal protection legislation in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and PEI has adopted the national Codes of Practice for farm animals to define minimum acceptable standards in those provinces.
To get them adopted here in B.C. each of us can do one simple thing.
And that is to contact our MLA, Robin Austin, at robin.austin.mla@leg.bc.ca to ask for the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farm Animals to be incorporated into B.C. legislation.
That’s it. That’s all you have to do.
Having this Canadian Code of Practice incorporated into legislation means that the code can then be used to determine what constitutes “reasonable and generally accepted practices” in investigations launched under B.C.’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Like me you probably thought that such a thing was already in place, but no.
It’s going to take an email or a tweet on everyone’s part to put such a basic code of practice into the legal system.
So put down the newspaper and do it right now so you don’t forget.
So simple to do but so important in the grand scheme of things.
So simple but so important in the big scheme of things. Animals being treated with the minimum care standards so they don’t suffer while they provide us with food, pretty basic stuff. Can you believe that it wasn’t all ready set up that way? Past and present Ministers of Agriculture have a lot to answer for - luckily for them we’re all too busy with our lives to check up on what they do all day.
Brenda Ramsay,
Terrace, B.C.