A new animal rights group in Kamloops made a squeal this week when their video of pigs being transported in crowded conditions was shared over social media over 200 times.
Kira Blaise, an organizer with Kamloops Animal Rights Movement & Advocacy (KARMA) captured the footage, which has since prompted an investigation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on the shipment of pigs.
But at the outset, it was never Blaise's intention to expose issues with how animals are transported in Canada.
Instead, she and her partner were just on their way to the way to A&W to try the new beyond meat burger before taking a detour to follow a transport truck. They had been wondering if there were slaughterhouses in Kamloops and followed the truck on a whim. Once it stopped near the inspection station, Blaise asked the driver if she could spend a few minutes with the animals in the back, and he was happy to oblige.
"I myself didn't recognize immediately that overcrowding was apparent, because this is the first time I've seen one of these trucks up close," says Blaise.
But after showing the footage to her partner later, it was clear that there were too many pigs in the back of the transport.
"I was so focused on being with the animals, feeling their emotions and the shock of what they were experiencing, that I never had the thought to ask the driver these questions and I'm kicking myself for it now."
Instead, they reached out to Anna Pippis, a lawyer for the animal law non-profit Animal Justice, for advice on how to proceed. She advised them that because the truck was from Alberta, to reach out to the ASPCA, as well as the CFIA. However, Pippus noted in their release that while federal law prohibits crowding animals in transport and they must be given even more space on hot days, what constitutes "crowding" is unclear.
"The best thing I think at this point, that can come from the investigation, is revising Canada's transport laws," says Blaise. "They haven't been revised in four decades and it's actually been scrutinized as being the worst in the Western world."
Here, pigs can be trucked for up to 36 hours without a break for rest, food or water. Blaise noted that in the European Union, the maximum is eight hours.
The video gained traction with other rights groups, particularly in the Lower Mainland, where one slaughterhouse was caught earlier this year failing to comply with current regulations. A recent story by the Vancouver Sun showed that 46 pigs had died over the years being shipped from Alberta to Donald’s Fine Foods in Langley.
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