Dear editor,
Kudos to Birkdale Farm on Guthrie Road in Comox, where their cows are out in the fields; no doubt this takes more effort than leaving them in the barn.
When I see them resting and grazing with such obvious contentment, I cannot help but think of the hundreds of millions of livestock animals that are raised in Canadian factory farms.
These unfortunate creatures are born or hatched in what amounts to warehouses, live their brief lives in cages, pens or crates, and only see the sun and smell the air in the truck on the way to the slaughterhouse, a journey that can legally take up to 52 hours without unloading for rest, food or water.
The Vancouver Humane Society is attempting to convince Tim Horton's to stop buying eggs from chickens kept in battery cages. With up to seven birds in each cage, chickens are unable to perch, stretch their wings, or stand up fully. Hundreds of thousands of birds are stacked in windowless barns.
The BCSPCA is running a Farm Animals Welfare campaign, and The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has released a report entitled, What's on Your Plate? The Hidden Costs of Industrial Animal Agriculture in Canada.
Please visit these websites and then write to the Federal Minister for Agriculture Gerry Ritz at gerry.ritz@parl.gc.ca or the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 with a copy to Tim Horton's (through their website contact information).
The egg-laying chickens of Canada thank you!
Gillian Anderson,
Merville