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Orcas, ‘Freedom Food’ and the World Bank What they mean for the future farm animal welfare and Canada’s livestock industries. UBC’s Dr. David Fraser plays tour guide, offering perspective on five key indicators of the emerging new era. Dr. David Fraser is one of the world’s top experts on animal welfare developments, but even he gets surprises. “A few weeks ago, I received a document that was circulated for discussion called ‘Creating business opportunities through improved animal welfare,’” recalls Fraser, professor in the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Animal Welfare Program. “The title sounded like a fairly idealistic” he thought, “like something you might expect to see coming from an animal protection organization. But once I noticed the logo, I knew this was different.” The logo, a black and white globe followed by the block letters IFC, indicated none other than the International Finance Corporation – the investment arm of the powerful and influential World Bank. The IFC currently has 300 million dollars invested in livestock operations, especially poultry and swine, in less industrialized nations that collectively are fast becoming the world’s highest volume meat producers. To Fraser, the document represented a sea change in global attention to animal welfare: “When the World Bank becomes an agent of change for animal welfare, we realize we’ve entered a different world.” Five key indicators of a new world order In a lead-off presentation at the recent Livestock Care Conference in Red Deer, Fraser, who consults broadly on global animal welfare initiatives, delivered an update on what this new world looks like at the big picture level. The following is a snapshot look at five key indicators of changing times highlighted during Fraser’s presentation. More information on the Livestock Care Conference, hosted by Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) is available at www.afac.ab.ca. 1. The whale factor. As a Vancouver resident, Fraser drew on a bit of local history to illustrate a major shift in the public perception of animal welfare over the past 50 years. Recapping the history of orcas (a.k.a. killer whales) at the Vancouver Aquarium, he recounted how in 1964 the Aquarium sent a small ship out of the local port to kill a wild whale, with the idea of cleaning the skeleton and using it as part of an educational display in the Aquarium. “This didn’t go quite as planned,” says Fraser. “At the end of the day the crew had caught an orca, and they had injured it, but it wasn’t dead. So they transferred it to a tank in the Aquarium where it recovered. And as soon as a more suitable display tank could be constructed, the live orca rapidly became the Aquarium’s star attraction, and was followed by a string of other orcas that were captured or purchased from other facilities.” By the 1990’s, however, attitudes had shifted dramatically. “The Aquarium found itself facing increasing pressure from critics, the media, and some of its own paying customers, who questioned the ethics of keeping such intelligent, social animals in captivity.” After a long debate, the Aquarium decided to no longer keep orcas and the last one was transferred to an aquarium in San Diego, where it would have more space and the company of other orcas. The transfer happened during a provincial election, noted Fraser. “It was amusing to see that the whale received about as much media attention, and certainly more genuine sympathy from the public, than any of the politicians. In fact, if the whale had run in the election, then British Columbia might have edged out California as the first west coast jurisdiction to be governed by a large, muscular entertainment figure.” Jokes aside, the whale story illustrates a tremendous shift in public attitude. “We went from a time when killing an orca to display its skeleton seemed like a good idea, to a time when keeping an orca in captivity was enough to trigger public protest. It was a profound change.” 2. Drumbeat of change. With that change in attitudes has come a long history of social change, with agriculture often a focus as by far the largest user of animals. There are many milestones to point to, says Fraser. To mention a few, in the 1970’s Welfare Codes of best practices were created in the UK, with Canada doing the same 10 years later; in 1981 the battery cage was banned in Switzerland after a referendum; 1994 saw the start of the Freedom Food labeling program in the UK; and in 1999 McDonald’s Restaurants in the US began requiring certain animal welfare standards as a condition of purchase from its US suppliers. Freedom Food is an example of an emerging trend toward labelling programs to differentiate products that are produced according to defined animal care methods or standards, notes Fraser. The program, set up by the UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, currently includes 2000 farms, transporters and slaughter plants that have joined by passing an audit and annual inspection. “The products carry the Freedom Food label and typically sell for a slightly higher price than other products.” At the time, all of the mentioned developments were surprising initiatives, says Fraser. “However, the opening years of the 2000’s suggests that the surprises are going to continue.” 3. The new meat producers. One of the surprises is the rapid increase in meat production in less developed countries, he says. During the 1900s, a large majority of the world’s meat production occurred in ‘developed’ or industrialized nations. In the second half of the century, however, the less industrialized nations had major population expansions combined with strong increases in per capita consumption of meat. “Some time in the late 1990's the lines crossed,” says Fraser. “We are now entering a century when the majority of the world’s meat production will increasingly be concentrated in the less industrialized nations. This creates new challenges in the area of animal welfare.” 4. Arrival of the global village. It’s also a century where global attention to animal agriculture is rapidly increasing, fueled in part by broad communications that instantly beam news and images from all corners of the world. “Global attention to animal agriculture is at an all time high, and the health of farm animals has become a matter of international news” It’s also a “global-village” culture, where e-mail and other technology feeds unprecedented awareness. “Just a few days ago I received a photograph showing cattle being shot in Brazil, in a Foot and Mouth Disease kill,” says Fraser. “It arrived out of the blue, sent by a concerned Brazilian citizen who was upset at the process.” 5. Heavyweights taking notice. Perhaps most tellingly, the world is also seeing increasing attention to animal welfare issues at an official level. Recent attention from the IFC is just one example that animal welfare has become a focus of high-level international attention. In one major development, in May 2005, the OIE or World Organization for Animal Health adopted its first animal welfare guidelines. These guidelines now form four new chapters in the OIE’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code. These cover the slaughter of animals for human consumption, the killing of animals for disease control, and the transport of animals by land and sea. “The guidelines are basic rather than revolutionary, but many of the 167 countries that supported them do not have their own national animal protection legislation, so the OIE guidelines were the first time that many countries had adopted animal welfare guidelines. This is an important signal of the increasing globalization of animal welfare expectations.” -30- More stories on the Livestock Care Conference: |
