let's talk farm animals

Meet the face of November in the 2013 Faces of Farming calendar

By Patricia Grotenhuis

Passionate about telling the public about her family’s 200 year old egg farm in Eastern Ontario, Stephanie Campbell has undertaken a number of projects to achieve her goal.

Campbell’s agricultural awareness efforts have spanned her local area, the campus of the University of Guelph, and various events across Ontario.  They have even led to the creation of YouTube videos to share her message with a broader audience.  In 2013, Stephanie will be featured as the face of November in the Faces of Farming Calendar published by Farm & Food Care Ontario. Her appearance in the calendar is sponsored collectively by the Farmers Feed Cities campaign and by Burnbrae Farms.

“I enjoy showing my urban friends the farming life. We try to hold open houses and barn tours at least once a year,” says Campbell.

Stephanie Campbell is the face of November in the 2013 Faces of Farming calendar

Stephanie Campbell is the face of November in the 2013 Faces of Farming calendar

During her time at Guelph while she completed her Crop Science degree, Campbell was secretary of the Poultry Club.  Within two years the club increased to 60 members from 30, and had members both with and without agriculture backgrounds.The poultry club’s main objective was to get students interested and involved in the poultry industry.  They toured farms, worked on a video in partnership with the Poultry Industry Council, and worked with the Turkey Farmers of Ontario on website projects.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on October 31st, 2013 :: Filed under Agricultural Advocates,Agriculture Education,eggs,Laying hens
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A poultry vet responds to this week’s activist videos

Guest blog by Dr. Mike Petrik, Ontario poultry veterinarian

(reprinted with permission from http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/response-to-activist-video/#comments)

This blog post is one I was hoping not to have to write. In Canada, there was recently an “investigative report” on the commercial egg industry. It developed after an animal activist group took undercover footage and passed an edited video to a television newsmagazine. The resulting 30 minute show was a black eye to the professional farmers, and has caused a stir in the public. I am disappointed in the response from the industry groups to address this attack, so I am writing this blog post in hopes of doing my part. This commentary does not represent any organization, and is entirely my own opinion.

First, let me point out some of the issues that are at play in animal activist videos in general.

1) Modern farms are large. This is daunting to most non-agricultural people. Looking at a barn with 10,000 chickens is as alien to you as me looking at an auto assembly plant, or a brewery, or a company that makes computer components. The shock of seeing the alien environment is leveraged by insinuating that it is impossible to care for large groups of hens. The fact is, there are basically as many laying hens in Canada as there are people. The farms are large because so many people live in cities and towns and don’t have time or interest in raising their own food. 30 Million chickens have to live somewhere in Canada if we want to continue to eat eggs the way we do now. Interestingly, the average flock size in Canada is smaller than anywhere else in the developed world….in the US, farms are between 50 and 100 times as large.

2) Activist videos are not what they seem. No, I’m not saying they fake them (although that has happened in some cases). What you need to realize is that the activist takes video for 4-5 months, then edits the video into the worst possible 15 minutes possible. The mandate of animal activists is to stop the use of animals…..all animals. They aren’t interested in showing the truth….if false representation helps them stop a process they see as immoral, that is very acceptable to them. Think about what this means. Imagine someone secretly taping you interacting with your kids or coworkers for months, and then trying to make you look bad. Imagine going through 4 months of footage of baseball games, and clipping out batters getting hit, hard slides, collisions at the plate, then make a 15 minute video of how baseball should be stopped because it is too violent. If the people watching were from the interior of China where people are unfamiliar with baseball, what would their opinion of the sport be?

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on October 23rd, 2013 :: Filed under Activism,Agriculture Education,Animal care,Animal cruelty,Animal welfare,eggs,Laying hens
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Expert Panel Addresses Hidden Camera Investigation at Alberta Egg Farm

A panel of farm animal care specialists has examined undercover video footage from an egg farm in Alberta and says that the scenes clearly show unethical and irresponsible treatment of animals. The panel also felt it was difficult to reach conclusions based on the video footage as presented.

The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) created the Animal Care Review Panel to engage recognized animal care specialists to examine hidden amera video investigations and provide expert perspectives for food retailers, the egg industry and the media. The panel was asked to examine video contained in a report on the television news magazine W5 as well as a 3-minute video segment posted on the Mercy for Animals Canada website.

The panel was comprised of Dr. Candace Croney, Purdue University; Dr. Ed Pajor, University of Calgary; and Dr. Stewart Ritchie, a British Columbia veterinarian and poultry consultant.

In the video, hens are seen being tossed and handled roughly by workers, dead birds lie in cages and on floors in various levels of decay and chicks appear to be trapped in cages or farm equipment.

“What was shown in the video is inappropriate and unacceptable,” said Croney. “Handling birds that roughly reflects a lack of cognizance that these are live, sentient animals that can feel pain. What I saw shows a real need for additional training of farm employees at the very minimum.”

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on October 22nd, 2013 :: Filed under Activism,Animal care,Animal cruelty,eggs,Housing,Laying hens
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Do you know what Animal Welfare really means?

In my 15 years studying, researching and being employed in agriculture I’ve had many discussions with urban and agricultural friends, family, colleagues and even strangers about the meaning of animal welfare.  Often this conversation begins with animal welfare and then diverges into other different and oftentimes unrelated topics.  One such discussion began with welfare of laying hens in cages then turned into a discussion of the nutritional benefits of eggs from hens fed different diets.  I suspect welfare is never a short discussion because in many people’s minds welfare is associated with so many other issues.

So, what is Animal Welfare?

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on July 25th, 2013 :: Filed under Agricultural Advocates,Agriculture Education,Animal welfare,Canada,Chickens,Codes of Practice,Consumers,Education and public awareness,Laying hens,Misconceptions,Research,Speaking out,Uncategorized
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Chicken lungs

Did you know that farm animal veterinarians are extremely specialized? A poultry veterinarian will be an expert in caring for chickens or turkeys, but usually won’t be as experienced in treating a beef cow or a pig.

Today, we want to draw your attention to a blog written by Mike, an Ontario chicken veterinarian.

You can learn more about Mike and his interesting choice of careers at http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/about/

Here’s a link to his latest blog – Chicken Lungs

“Anyone who knows me knows of my hate-hate relationship with running. I have started running in the past year, and have decided that it is the most ridiculous activity known to man. You can’t score goals, you can’t look cool, and you will NEVER make it to Sportcenter (Usain Bolt excluded….I mean….he IS Usain Bolt).

The main reason I hate running is because I suck at it. I’m strong, but my aerobic capacity is lousy. I wish I was a bird. If I was a bird, my trachea (windpipe) would be 2.7 times as large, reducing air resistance. My rate of breathing would be about 1/3 of what it is currently, and I would take much bigger breaths.

This is the first part of the system that makes the bird respiratory system much more efficient at gas exchange than mammals (especially this particular mammal). ”

To read more go to…http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/chicken-lungs/

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on May 23rd, 2013 :: Filed under animal handling,Animal welfare,Chickens,Laying hens,Poultry
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Ontario egg farmer says her hens stay up all night

By Jeanine Moyer (Seaforth) - Carol Leeming is a professional egg farmer. And in addition to caring for her flock of 42,000 hens, she’s a mom, wife, career woman, motorcycle enthusiast and self-proclaimed ag-vocate (an advocate for agriculture). T

his busy woman has been involved in agriculture and poultry all her life and is proud to produce the highest quality food possible for egg-lovers to enjoy. Leeming and her husband Bob have been egg farmers near Seaforth, ON for more than 25 years.

Egg farmers Carol and Bob Leeming and their family (Photo by Angela Smith)

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on March 28th, 2013 :: Filed under Agricultural Advocates,Animal care,animal handling,Chickens,eggs,Innovation and technology,Laying hens,Poultry
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Addressing the Emotion of Animal Welfare

Guest Blog By Gayle Smith

Animal activists are successfully influencing the consumer’s view of animal welfare by appealing to the core values people believe in, such as compassion, justice, fairness and freedom.

During a recent meeting in Nebraska, a slide depicted two photos. One was of caged laying hens, and the other was a small cage containing two parrots. The message was obvious – why do so many of the public oppose the housing situation for the laying hens, but see no problem with the quality of life of the parrots?

To view the rest of this article, visit this link: http://beefmagazine.com/beef-quality/addressing-emotion-animal-welfare

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on August 23rd, 2012 :: Filed under Activism,Agriculture Education,Animal care,Animal welfare,Laying hens,Pigs
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