Auctions and the Law

All animal welfare legislation pertaining to stockyard auctions is supposed to be enforced by both federal and provincial authorities. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) oversees transport, offloading, and loading related legislation. Provincial agriculture authorities regulate the treatment of animals during their stay at the auction.

The existing legislation states that the following should be adhered to:

• Animal holding pens at the auctions must be equipped with drinking and feeding facilities.
• Holding pens must be large enough so that animals can lie down without being overcrowded.
• Animals showing evidence of disease or injury must be separated from other animals.
• Downers are not permitted to be moved without the prior consent of a veterinarian and then only for direct transport to a slaughterhouse.
• Large and small animals are to be separated.
• Auction facilities are to be maintained in a standard that does not pose a hazard to animals.

Outlaw Auctions

Global Action Network has documented non-compliance with the laws that are supposed to regulate stockyard auctions on every occasion that we have inspected auction sites - even while openly videotaping.

Documented violations include: excessive use of electric prods in the face and genital regions, use of electric prods in bottleneck situations, dragging of downers prior to euthanasia, moving downers with a Bobcat (mechanical loader), and excessive kicking, punching and beating of animals on a regular basis. The vast majority of auctions did not provide any water or food for the animals, and on many occasions animals of different sizes and temperments were intermixed, resulting in panicking and fighting.

At one auction in Ontario, a GAN investigator witnessed a downed dairy cow beaten and shocked with a cattle prod for over half an hour in a futile attempt to move the animal. On other occasions, our investigators have documented downed pigs with broken legs being kicked and shocked repeatedly during unloading. Virtually every auction in Quebec and Ontario was in a full violation of each law and regulation that exists to protect the animals.

Government Inaction

Both federal and provincial agricultural inspectors are supposed to enforce animal welfare legislation at auctions. But when visiting every auction in Ontario and Quebec over a 3 month period, GAN investigators did not once encounter a single inspector.

When we called auction inspectors to discuss the situation, we were shocked by the profound lack of knowledge, disinterest, and apathy that characterised their responses to our questions about animal welfare at auctions. Some inspectors couldn’t recall the last time they had visited an auction to conduct an inspection. Others admitted to being unaware of the existence of the legislation they were supposed to be enforcing.

Tellingly, not one inspector in Quebec has prosecuted an auction for animal welfare violations since 1987. Inspectors in Ontario were also unaware of any auctions that had ever been prosecuted for cruelty to animals. One Ontario inspector admitted that the responsibility for enforcement of the few laws that do exist is generally passed on to auction site employees – a clear conflict of interest. Clearly, the provincial and federal governments are not interested in enforcing even the few laws that exist in this country to protect animals at stockyard auctions.