The chair of National Farm Animal Care Council’s Pig Code Development Committee says efforts spent on reaching a consensus on changes to Canada’s Pig Code of Practice will benefit the animals under our care.
Members of the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Pig Code Committee Development Committee met last week to discuss public comments on a draft updated Pig Code of Practice and consider changes to the proposed code.
Although details will not be made public until release of the final code, agreement on a substantial portion has now been reached.
Committee chair Florian Possberg notes the draft code has drawn interest from around the world.
We’ve had various jurisdictions. whether it’s Europe or the United States deal with this by regulation and that sort of thing.
What we’ve learned is that, if we can come to a consensus as an industry and general public and allow changes to happen that really are much more acceptable from all sides, at the end of the day we can come up with something that’s actually better for our animals and I think that’s been the bottom line in the commitment from all the people involved in this process.
It’s not about making radical changes and so on without considering the implications of everybody involved and number one the animal welfare of our animals that we are in care of.
It’s taken a lot longer than quite frankly I would have liked to have seen but I think, because we have put so much effort into this process, I think we’ve come to a much better place than if we would have did it radically and without the forethought that we put into it.
The Pig Code Development Committee is scheduled to meet in January to complete the code after which it will need to be edited and translated prior to public release, expected this coming spring.
