Fighting the Good Fight: Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals

Bless Twyla Francois and the wonderful folks involved with Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals (CETFA). They are making a difference and, as one of the few watchdog groups in this country, they are needed now more than ever. If you get a chance, please watch this powerful CETFA video about the treatment of sows in Manitoba. If this does not stir concern in your hearts for these beautiful animals, my friends, nothing will. We human beings have no right to treat animals in this fashion. Animals are not commodities. Animals are not goods, like slaves, to be bought and sold. They are living, sentient, breathing, feeling beings who love, feel pain and anxiety, form bonds, give birth, and should be able to grow old and die peacefully. But instead, they are subjected to this horrific treatment at the hands of the factory farm system. Our best hope is to spread the word about this system and how it brutalizes all animals and dehumanizes us by asking us to live in a state of constant denial and always look the other way. Videos such as this one shatter the denial and tear down the wall one brick at a time. Thank you, Twyla. And thank you, CETFA. You're making a huge difference. And we need you out there, fighting the good fight for the animals.

Are We Seeing a Pattern? Yet Another Factory Farm Fire in Manitoba...

Two hundred pigs died in the latest factory farm fire in Manitoba. The fire happened yesterday. Firefighters were called out to a farm that housed 1600 pigs. Two hundred sows died in the inferno. Just the other day, I blogged about the infamous "horror farm" in Manitoba, where hundreds of pigs starved to death after being neglected for a prolonged period. Shortly after the appalling discovery of countless pigs who had starved to death, the "horror farm" burned to the ground. Then came yesterday's fire, which caused $300,000 in damages. The farm is "salvageable," according to observers. (Source)

Readers of this blog might also recall my Blog Entry of May 29 about my column in The Waterloo Region Record on the rash of factory farm fires across Canada. At the time I wrote that column, the end of May, 78,466 animals had perished in factory farm fires just since January 1, 2010. That figure has already skyrocketed, especially with the 32,000 broiler hens who perished in a factory farm fire in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Why haven't these factory farm fires caused more outrage? These animals are dying the most violent deaths imaginable. This ghastly state of affairs has to change, or else Canada will develop a reputation as a country that treats its animals horribly.

Please Take 1 Minute Out of Your Day to Help These Abused Pigs

All it takes is one minute. One minute to help animals who need your help. Please visit this URL:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/500-pigs-starved-to-death--those-involved-need-to-be-prosecuted

I beg you to take a moment to sign this petition and let the authorities in Manitoba know that the horrifying abuse of thousands of pigs at a farm in Notre Dame de Lourdes, which resulted in the unspeakably awful deaths of well over 600, will not be tolerated. (See my Blog entry here on the subject.)

The very barn that became a ghastly pig torture chamber burned last Wednesday in a fire, not long after authorities raided it and found hundreds of dead pigs and countless others suffering. Luckily, the authorities saved 2000 of the beautiful creatures.

Our animal friends need our help right now. These are extraordinary creatures who all - each and every one - deserve to live much better lives than the awful existences they have lived up until this point.

Time to punish the offenders. And punish them hard.

Even though this case is an extreme form of animal abuse, we should not lose sight of the violence inherent in the factory farm system. Combating awful cases of abuse such as this one should be our Number One priority. The poor pigs who suffered so terribly deserve justice.

Surely, this is a cause around which omnivores, vegetarians, vegans and anyone else with a healthy respect for the sanctity of life can rally.

Horror in Manitoba

In Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is investigating a horrifying case of "severe neglect" at a farm (pictured above) in Notre Dame de Lourdes (southwest of Winnipeg).

The scene was straight out of a horror film. The owner of the farm, Martin Grenier, left 2,700 pigs in a barn without feed, water or proper ventilation.

Five hundred pigs died. Authorities were forced to euthanize another 160. The remaining 2,000 were placed in the custody of the chief veterinarian.

Grenier had plenty of food and water to provide for the pigs. Apparently, he simply couldn't be bothered to take proper care of his animals.

Even by factory farm standards, this is ghastly treatment. What is to be done to Grenier? Historically, these sorts of horrific cases of animal abuse have gone unpunished. At the most, the abusers get a slap on the wrist. Rarely are they banned from owning animals in the future. Most of the time, the Martin Greniers of the world get away with it.

Twyla Francois, the wonderful head of Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals, spoke out forcefully against the horrible treatment of these pigs. And farmers in the area are troubled by the terrible discovery on the Grenier farm. As a farmer who lives nearby put it, "We are all wondering how this could be? We don't even know how a person could ever think of doing that." (Source: See the Video of the Story here.)

The real test comes when authorities decide how to punish Grenier. Is he going to get away with it, as so many animal abusers have in the past? Or, for once in the long and sorry history of human mistreatment of animals, is the perpetrator going to receive an appropriate punishment?

We shall see.

(Thanks to Twyla Francois for bringing this to my attention.)