Abuse of BC Homeless Persons via Chicken Manure

Weaponized Chicken Manure:   Farmers who raise chickens under a Supply Management ("SM") license appear to have supplied biohazardous chicken manure to at least 3 municipalities in BC to use as a weapon against the homeless.  Did the SM system adequately regulate and supervise the SM farmer(s) that aided &/or abetted this despicable and disgraceful act?

Figure 1:  A large farm tractor hauling a load of chicken
manure. In Abbotsford's case, the chicken manure was
manually shoveled out of a municipal dump truck on top
of the homeless and their meager possesions.
(Photo: Abbotsford Today )

Chicken manure was used by municipal employees (in Surrey BC in Aug. 2009, again in Abbotsford BC in June 2013), and Port Coquitlam shortly after Abbotsford) to contaminate municipal lands, residential tents, and personal property used by homeless persons for encampments.  The manure was also used as a weapon to force homeless people to vacate the manure treated area of municipal property.

The story "This Stinks" was originally reported by James Breckenridge on an online newspaper Abbotsford Today on April 6, 2013.  I first learned of this incident on Oct. 21, 2015 via CBC Radio As It Happens   coverage of the BC Supreme Court ruling (Chief Justice Hinkson,
Abbotsford (City) v. Shantz, Case: 2015 BCSC 1909, Dockets S156820 and S159480), against the Abbotsford BC municipality, calling the city's actions "disgraceful".

CBC News also reported that BC's Supreme Court upheld the complaints by homeless persons that their Charter rights had been violated by chicken manure, bear spray, confiscation &/or destruction of the meager possessions of the homeless, and other disgusting and callous behaviours by municipal employees and/or police.

Figure 2:  Residents at the homeless protest camp in Jubilee
Park in 2014 refused to leave, despite threats of an injunction
from the City of Abbotsford, BC. (Photo: CBC)

CBC Radio states that local police may have facilitated, acquiesced, or originated the idea of using chicken manure as a weapon against the homeless.  The Abbotsford Chief of Police was quoted at a public meeting in the Winter of 2012-2013 saying: "My policy is displace and disperse … we only respond to complaints from citizens…we don’t seek the homeless out…”; in other words, run the homeless out of town.  It is unknown if these were bona fide substantiated complaints, or maybe automatic (or self-generated) complaints.

While no By-law was passed by the Municipal Councils to authorize these misguided actions, that doesn't guarantee that one or more Councillor, Mayor, Municipal Clerk, or other senior municipal manager didn't know of this planned action in advance, tacitly approved it, or acquiesced to the plan.

Subsequent to the initial report on the chicken manure incident, the scandal spread much further (see here, here, and here).  Eventually, Abbotsford Today reported in June 2013 that the city's manager of bylaw enforcement, the general manager of finance, and general manager of economic development all left the city's employment rather abruptly, shortly after the chicken manure attack upon the homeless.

There is now a video short that you can watch privately for $3.00 or you can screen it for your local community group.  There is also a Facebook group on this issue.

Abbotsford BC:  A City of Contrasts

As of June 2015, Abbotsford Today reports:

Homelessness: This issue won’t go away. The City of Abbotsford has spent $1 million of your money fighting the homeless in court, and they continue to lose nearly every battle. It is estimated that they will spend at least another $1 million only to lose the entire war. There has been no progress whatsoever on this issue. The only real beneficiary has been the City of Abbotsford’s law firm. So where do we go from here? Watch for this column coming soon.

What terrible fate or fear has fallen upon the people of Abbotsford, Surrey, and possibly many others that those who "have-a-little" feel a need to persecute the "have-nots"?

Is this a misguided attempt by the "have-a-little" people to clear the proverbial airport runway of poverty so that the "have-a-little" gain some free space to crash land into poverty as they are shot out of the sky by the 0.1%'ers?

Contrast the weaponized chicken manure with the report by Statistics Canada that as of 2011, Abbotsford had the most generous per capita charitable donations of any Canadian city for 9 straight years.

No doubt, Abbotsford BC is a city of contrasts.

I have previously posted about the precipitous drop in the savings rate of Canadians from 30% in 1980, reaching virtually zero in 2013 (see Blog posting "Why do we need cheaper food?").  In BC, the savings rate is currently -7%, meaning that the average household must use their credit card, bank line of credit, or re-mortgaging of their house so as to afford 7% of their monthly household expenses.  No wonder Food Banks in BC reported a 24.7% increase in Food Bank usage between 2008 and 2014, which is a doubling & re-doubling of Food Bank usage every 18.6 years.  In Abbotsford, there are 7 Food Banks to serve about 134,000 people.

In 2012, Globe & Mail reported:

"The Fraser Valley city of 137,000 went from recording 11 murders — most gang-related — in 2009 to none in 2011 after four deaths in 2010, Constable Ian MacDonald said.

Based on the Statistics Canada figures for communities with a population of more than 100,000, Abbotsford was on top [worst city for murders] on a per-capita basis in 2009."

In 2005, the Abbotsford–Mission metropolitan area had the highest property crime rate and the second highest violent crime rate for cities with a population of 100,000 to 500,000 in Canada.

With the Southern city limits of Abbotsford being the Canada-US border, Abbotsford is prime real estate for cross-border traffic with the USA.  BC Business magazine estimated that the BC marijuana industry "contributed" $7.5-billion GDP in 2008 with a labor force of over 250,000 workers.  BC's marijuana industry is #2 in the BC economy (Construction is #1, Forestry is #3).  With Canadian housing teetering on the brink of a crash, the housing wealth effect will likely soon evaporate.  The construction industry in BC (and across Canada) will soon likely shrivel like a man on a New Years Day Polar Bear plunge into an iced over lake.  That may soon leave marijuana as the #1 industry in BC.

Abbotsford, and many other similar communities may soon become even more stressed.

What comes after weaponized chicken manure?

Weaponized Chicken Manure

We believe that all chicken farmers, both quota and non-quota, must ensure that weaponized chicken manure (and all similar incidents) must be prohibited and prevented from re-occurring ever again.
 
Scientists have studied the negative impact on people from manure, and they can be severe.  The impact isn't limited to upper middle class suburbs that are encroaching upon farmland.  The study found: 

• Bacteria, fungi, moulds, and bioactive substances like endotoxins and glucans were present in the dust (particulate matter) from manure;
• "Odour annoyance is a strong negative predictor of QoL [Quality of Life] among nearby residents. Sixty-one percent of the respondents complained about unpleasant odours and 91% of these accused livestock as source of these odours."

Did this manure also contain dead bird mortalities or poultry processing waste, which could be even a greater biohazard risk?

It was reported that the chicken manure was extremely odorous when it was spread on the land, as well as next to, on top of, and inside tents used by the homeless to sleep in.

Chicken manure is only highly odorous when it is fresh, prior to it being composted.  Prior to composting, chicken manure contains, or should be assumed to contain, active pathogens (bacteria, viruses, and other biohazardous materials) that can readily contaminate articles or persons.  Chickens are known to carry or transmit 60 major diseases, some of which humans can be afflicted by.  Just one of those diseases is HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or "Bird Flu").  Thousands of people have died from contracting Bird Flu during the last decade, which was in BC's Fraser Valley as recently as Spring 2015.

If the chicken manure had a mild or minimal odor, it was likely properly composted prior to the mis-use of the manure by the municipalities.  If composted, the manure would have been denatured (ie. pathogens that had previously existed had been mostly or totally killed) via the high temperatures that naturally occur during proper composting techniques.

With very stinky chicken manure used by the municipality, I therefore conclude that a significant biohazardous risk was created when the chicken manure was used as a weapon against the homeless.

Crime, Terrorism, or Just a Bad Idea?

Figure 3:   Farmer David Cannon spreads manure upon the
walls and sidewalk outside a UK bank in 2000, after a
10 year dispute.  The farmer was fined and sentenced to
60 days in jail (suspended provided he stays out of trouble).
Should the bad acting BC municipalities  and the enabling
chicken farmer(s) face similar sanctions?

In the UK, a farmer assaulted urban bank branches using farm manure in Year 2000.  He was fined and sentenced to 60 days in jail (suspended sentence). Should the bad acting BC municipalities and the enabling chicken farmer(s) face similar sanctions?

Is there sufficient grounds for the RCMP to investigate this as a criminal act or indictable offense, and possibly lay charges?

For an example of the potential hazards and to minimize the risks from manures, look at the regulation for importing manure into Canada that could be infectious or biohazardous, we have the Federal  Health of Animals Regulations, C.R.C., c. 296

41.1.  A person may import into Canada an animal by-product, manure or a thing containing an animal by product or manure, other than one described in section 45, 46, 47, 47.1, 49, 50, 51, 51.2 or 53, if:
. . .
 (c) the by-product, manure or thing has been collected, treated, prepared, processed, stored and handled in a manner that would prevent the introduction into Canada of any reportable disease, any disease referred to in Schedule VII and any serious epizootic disease to which the species from which the by-product, manure or thing was derived is susceptible and that can be transmitted by the by¬product, manure or thing, and the person produces a certificate signed by an official of the government of the country of origin that

(i) attests that the by-product, manure or thing has been collected, treated, prepared, processed, stored and handled in that manner, and

(ii) shows the details of how it was collected, treat-ed, prepared, processed, stored and handled. 

BC's Environmental Management Act has an Agricultural Waste Control Regulation that controls the proper use of manures, but this regulation likely doesn't prohibit the crazy actions of these out of control municipalities.

It appears the chicken manure used meets the definition of a noxious substance.  There appears to be reasonable & probable grounds to believe the spreading of the chicken manure was an intentional act meant to aggrieve or annoy one or more of the homeless persons who were living in that area.  Section 245 of Canada's Criminal Code states:

Administering noxious thing
245. Every one who administers or causes to be administered to any person or causes any person to take poison or any other destructive or noxious thing is guilty of an indictable offence and liable

(a) to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years, if he intends thereby to endanger the life of or to cause bodily harm to that person; or

(b) to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, if he intends thereby to aggrieve or annoy that person.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 229.

The chicken manures used in BC seem to meet the definition of a active biological agent.  The Canadian Federal law Biological  and  Toxin  Weapons  Convention Implementation Act (Part 23) states on page 96:

6.(1) No person shall develop, produce, retain, stockpile, otherwise acquire or possess, use or transfer(a) any microbial or other biological agent, or any toxin, for any purpose other than prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes; or

(b) any weapon, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such an agent or toxin for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.

Something tells me the chicken manure wasn't used for "peaceful purposes" against the homeless.  Section 14.(1) says that if someone contravenes Section 6, they are guilty of an indictable offense and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or to both.

Criminal Mischief is defined by Section 430:

Mischief
430. (1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully

(a) destroys or damages property;

(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;

(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property; or

(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.

Sections (a) and (b) seem to fit the prima facie evidence.  Case law has found that mischief can be done even to property such as refuse or garbage, so damaging or destroying the meager possessions of the homeless can still justify a charge of mischief.

I also looked at whether this could be considered an act or terrorism.  It doesn't appear the use of chicken manure against homeless people sufficiently meets the definition of terrorism under Section 431.2.(2) of the Criminal Code (see page 508).  However, if it was a Muslim-Canadian who had spread the chicken manure for the intentional harassment of the homeless, the previous PC government would likely have taken a different interpretation than what I have concluded here. 

BC's Chicken Mafia Aiding & Abetting Weaponizing of Chicken Manure ?

It is unlikely that the municipal employees normally have ready access to significant quantities of fresh, non-composted chicken manure.  Therefore the city employees had to obtain that fresh chicken manure from one or more chicken farmers, likely within or proximate to these misguided municipalities.

Therefore, I conclude that one or more Canadian chicken farmers likely enabled these civil rights violations by these wayward municipalities.

I have no way of knowing if the culpable chicken farmer(s) were small flockers or quota-based CAFO farmer(s).  However, assuming that the municipality needed large quantities of manure, it is unlikely that it came from a small flock poultry farmer.  I therefore assume the guilty farmer(s) was/were quota-based chicken farmer(s) who conspired and enabled these despicable actions by municipal employees.

I hope that rules, policies, regulations, or laws of  BC Chicken Marketing Board,  BC Chicken Growers’ Association, BC Farm Industry Review Board, B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, and B.C. Ministry of Health
are sufficient to ensure that manure (and all similar farm products) are never again mis-used as weapons against people, homeless or not.

Under BC Poultry Biosecurity Guide, BC's quota-based poultry farms:

• Must have a documented manure management strategy (Section 4.4);
   
• Recognize that manure can be a high-risk source of disease transmission (Section 4.4);
   
• Must have a manure management strategy that, at a minimum, document how the manure was utilized and/or who transported it from the farm (Section 4.4); and
   
• Should not spread raw (ie. not composted) manure on fields (Section 4.4); and
• Require a mandatory written log book, and must log the name of company or individual transporting manure off the farm and, where known, the receiver (Section 4.7.1).

I doubt that anybody's Manure Management Strategy will neither document nor authorize the selling or gifting of chicken manure to a municipality or other third party for use as a weapon against homeless people.  If it isn't documented and yet was done by a BC quota-based chicken farm, then that is a non-compliance that can be investigated, the farmer(s) that facilitated this attack on the homeless can be identified, and those farmer(s) can be suitably sanctioned by the Chicken Mafia authorities in BC.

Has that Chicken Mafia investigation of weaponized chicken manure been done? If not, why not?

Could the chicken manure (recklessly spread on municipal lands as a weapon used against the homeless) be explained as an "accidental" spill?  Under the BC Spill Reporting Regulation, manure spills greater than 200 kg or 200 litres must be reported immediately to the Provincial Emergency Program.  Did this occur?

A 6 year study of manure issues by BC's Ministry of Environment has finally resulted in a Sept. 2015 announcement that changes are required to tighten controls on manure.  Perhaps this issue needs to be added too.

When I reviewed Small Flocker's policies and Principles, I was not comfortable that our Small Flocker principles were adequate to prevent this issue on our side of the farm fence.  Therefore, today I added the following to our Principles as the new #10:

10.  All farmers shall plan and reasonably ensure that all raw materials, on- and off-farm processes, products, by-products, wastes, and emissions are done in a lawful, moral, reasonable, sustainable, and socially acceptable manner for the entire life cycle of the materials and/or processes involved.

Does the BC Chicken Mafia have a similar policy?  Shouldn't Chicken Farmers of Canada take actions so we have a Canada-wide, consistent policy on the mis-use and abuse of people by chicken manure or other chicken offal?

Do any of these regulatory bodies need a policy?  If yes, they are welcome to use Small Flocker's new policy (see #10 above), if they wish, but I doubt they see the need.  I also doubt any of them will take action to do their job.  In that case, should the BC Farm Industry Review Board, B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, or the B.C. Ministry of Health force the Chicken Mafia to protect the homeless or the public in general from this type of assault in the future?

If not, we can eventually expect the same type of bad behaviour (by or enabled by a CAFO chicken farmer) some time in the future.

Chicken Mafia Answers to Serious Questions?

I have sent this Blog posting to the above BC authorities, and put some questions to them about this issue.

Any bets on whether I receive a reasonable & timely response?

Chicken Slaughter Plant Allegations of Animal Abuse

Undercover investigators for animal welfare have published another video on conditions inside the Carthage Texas USA slaughter plant of Tyson, taken during the Summer of 2015.





Tyson Foods is one of the world's largest processors and marketers of chicken, beef and pork.

Fox BusinessNews investigated the video and allegations made by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and reported as follows:

In an email to FOXBusiness.com, Tyson Foods says they’re still reviewing the video but want consumers to know that they are committed to proper animal handling and workplace safety.

“Everyone who works with live animals in our plants – including the person who secretly shot this video – is trained in proper animal handling and instructed to report anything they believe is inappropriate. They can report to their supervisor, the Tyson Foods compliance and ethics hotline and even one of the USDA inspectors who have access to all parts of the plant, including live animal handling areas. During the timeframe we believe this video was shot, we have no record of any employees reporting claims of animal handling violations,” the company said via email to FOXBusiness.com.

Tyson says in addition to training, they regularly conduct internal animal handling audits and they’re also subjected to third party audits as well.

“The USDA has authority over production rates. We operate our plants – including the one in Carthage, Texas – well within the limits set by the USDA. The safety of our Team Members is very important to us,” the company adds.

In an e-mail to FOXBusiness.com, the USDA gave the following statement.

"We are looking into the allegations of humane handling abuse at the Texas facility. FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) is dedicated to ensuring that all animals presented for slaughter at FSIS-inspected facilities are treated humanely."

Mother Jones and Food Safety News provide additional information on these allegations.

Tyson is usually seen as a leader in the US chicken industry by the USDA, consumers, and Tyson's peers.

The equipment, chemicals, methods, and training used by Tyson are likely the same or similar to the ones currently used in Canadian slaughter plants, or the Canadian plants would like to upgrade their "inferior and antequated" chicken slaughter plants so they are more like Tyson and its leading competitors.

Until undercover documentation of Canadian chicken slaughter plants occurs, we really don't know for sure what is occurring.  Alternatively, we can wait for Canada's chicken slaughter plants to be fully open, transparent, co-operative, and responsible to consumers.  That may take a while under the top secret Supply Management system of Canada.

Is "Humane Certified" Really Humane?

Foster Farms is the most
recent accused for chicken
abuse by the Chicken Mafia

The public is getting more and more enraged by clear violations of humane treatment and reasonable animal welfare for farm animals, including chickens. This time it was Foster Farms, a member of the US Chicken Mafia.  The Chicken Mafia can and should be preventing these incidents from occurring, then promptly responding to these incidents when their prevention efforts were insufficient.  Instead, the Chicken Mafia, whether in the US or Canada, prefer to delay, deny, distract, defend, destroy, deride, and deflect; rather than make the necessary changes to their dysfunctional systems.

Mercy for Animals enlisted Bob Barker, the former "Price Is Right" host, TV personality, and animal rights advocate for more than 30 years, to host and narrate this shocking video.



If the above video is reliable evidence, something in this commercial chicken system is broken, and needs to be fixed.

The above video is alleged to have been shot in California USA, at Foster Farms poultry slaughterhouse in Fresno, and their three poultry farms in Fresno County.  Once the undercover video was published, Foster Farms suspended 5 employees, and are doing re-training for the other employees in the areas investigated. The allegations received an immediate knee jerk reaction by the management of Foster Farms, blaming their employees.  Foster Farms response to the video is here.

Foster Farms says that every employee has animal welfare training every year.  If that's true, how do we explain the actions shown in the video?  Does management give mere lip service in this training (ie. rolling their eyes, cracking jokes, turning it into a farce)?  On the other hand, is every employee required to do a comprehensive comprehension test at the end of the training, to prove that they were paying attention, and fully understood?  Using dummy chickens, can each employee demonstrate what they understand to be acceptable animal treatment at their work station, and what is unacceptable (and might lead to them being fired)?

In spite of Foster Farms putting 100% of the blame onto the employees in their press release, does the management of Foster Farms have any blood on their hands?

I have posted previously that all management, whether on chicken farms or aerospace manufacturing, have the following duties owed to each and every one of their employees:

Duties that Managers Owe to All Employees

1. Ensure each employee knows exactly what is expected from them;
2. Provide each employee with all the necessary resources to readily achieve what is expected (eg. money, training, equipment, data, feedback, recognition, dignity, respect, supervision, tools, etc.).
3. Ensure each employee can (and does) measure and understand the difference between what is expected and what actually occurred.
4. Ensure that all employees take prompt corrective action to close the gap(s) between what is expected & what actually occurred.
5. Ensure that risks and non-conformances are promptly identified, and actions are taken to prevent their occurrence (or re-occurrence).

To run an organization without these 5 managerial duties, is to abdicate management's responsibilities.  For example, if the driver of a vehicle suddenly decided to close their eyes and let go of the steering wheel of their moving vehicle while driving on a busy street, should society hold that driver responsible for the subsequent carnage?  Without these 5 duties, the management has similarly let go of the corporate steering wheel and closed their eyes, and subjected all those nearby to the gruesome consequences.

Did the management of Foster Farms do any of those 5 steps?  If they didn't do all 5 steps in a comprehensive and effective manner, then the blame for the animal abuse sits on the shoulders of both Foster's management and the employees who actually did the abuse.

One news report on this scandal raised the issue of the poor working conditions suffered by the employees working at Foster Farms.  If the employees feel abused in their jobs at the hands of Foster management, some employees may lash out at the animals they are forced to process at break neck speeds.  As a hands-on employee on the chicken processing line, how do you keep your empathy and sanity in spite of the thousands of animals you send to their death every day, and avoid becoming desensitized to the animals' welfare?

In the video, Bob Barker (and/or Mercy of Animals) also blame the American Humane Association ("AHA") for enabling this abuse by falsely certifying Foster Farms and their chicken processes as "humane".

The Chicken Mafia is rich.  Foster Farms is one of the biggest chicken producers in the US, with 10,000-employees, operations in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas and Alabama, a comprehensive line of products that's sold globally, with over 100 producers on more than 7,000 farms. Foster Farms says they employ two full-time avian veterinarians and a poultry nutritionist.  Where were these professionals when these abuses were ongoing? Did these professionals know about, suspect, or turned a blind eye to this abuse? I believe any corporation that big should have known better, and taken better care to prevent these issues from occurring.

The American Humane Association ("AHA") has an ongoing need for $12.8 million per year in funding their charity.  Can the Chicken Mafia purchase and use the good name of AHA Certified Humane as a smoke screen?  AHA says:

"Since 1877 the historic American Humane Association has been at the forefront of every major advance in protecting children, pets and farm animals from abuse and neglect."

AHA doesn't own nor operate any animal welfare shelters.  AHA has drafted a document of best practices and minimal accepted standards to which about 300 animal shelters have voluntarily endorsed, follow, and pay AHA to audit their compliance.  AHA also has the exclusive contract to ensure that animals are well treated in all Hollywood movies and similar artistic productions.

There are others who also certify animal welfare excellence.  For example, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), this label has the most stringent guidelines. It is only issued to meat that comes from independent family farms.

Humane Farm Animal Care has Certified Humane, which USA Today called the "Gold Standard" for animal welfare.

According to Charity Navigation, AHA has recently suffered a 16.3% drop in funding to its charitable programs for animal welfare.

PetSmart Charities (a recent spin off of the US for-profit pet store chain that has a similar purpose to AHA) has a 22.9% better charity effectiveness score that AHA, and a $51 Million per year budget; almost 4 times bigger than AHA.  Obviously, older isn't necessarily better.

Does this loss of market share and exclusivity explain why AHA supported Foster Farms and the Chicken Mafia in their time of need, so as to obtain some quick cash for the AHA?

To become AHA certified for animal welfare, AHA requires an application, payment of a fee to AHA, an on-site audit by a certified ISO auditor who also has animal species-specific expertise, a review and approval of the audit results, employee training, and annual re-certification.  Sounds pretty good to me.  But is it effective, or a smoke screen?

The AHA standard for broiler chickens is 136 pages in length.  I haven't read the entire document, but I skimmed through it, as well as fully read and analyzed a few key sections.  There are a few typos, a few unclear sentences here and there, but for the most part, it seems to be a good standard to help ensure animal welfare.

Red Rover says that AHA's certification system is not as thorough as the other two major animal welfare certification bodies.  Is that why Foster Farms chose AHA's system?  Perhaps Foster Farms couldn't be bothered, or couldn't achieve compliance to the higher standards?

Whatever the answer, it seems to me that if a farm or chicken processing plant was fully compliant to the spirit and letter of AHA's standard, most people would find it acceptable.  The Mercy for Animals video shown above is clearly in violation of all three standards for animal welfare.

Therefore we are left to question the AHA auditors that were sent to Foster Farms, the auditing process, and compliance by Foster Farms' employees to the defined animal welfare standard.

During AHA's audits, do the auditors seek objective evidence that Foster Farms' management has consistently and effectively implemented all 5 steps listed above?

Paper documents, by themselves, don't keep animals safe and well cared for.  Many ISO-based quality management systems are bureaucratic, bloated, and ineffective; in spite of gold stars on their audit reports.  I know, as I spent 27 years as a certified ISO auditor.

Management must be engaged, and vigilant to ensure they build a culture that believes, supports, and practices the applicable standards every hour of every day.  Does Foster meet that criteria?  If they did, they would have been aware (or suspected) the potential for abuse portrayed in the video, and stopped it from occurring (or re-occurring) long before the Mercy for Animals undercover operative arrived with their video camera.

It takes time, skill, and significant effort to do a comprehensive audit, looking for evidence of what occurs when the auditor is there, as well as what happens between audits.  Are the auditors given sufficient time?  Are auditors encouraged and supported to dig deep and have the confidence to report fully and honestly, in spite of cajoling and attempts at manipulation of audit results by the employees and management?

Are verification and validation audits done by outside auditors (separate from both the company being audited, and AHA as well)?  This could be used to see if AHA auditors are doing full and comprehensive audits with consistent and repeatable results.

Hopefully, in time, we we learn the full details, and will be reassured how both Foster and the AHA certification process will both be improved.

Could we expect the same or similar results if Mercy for Animals did more undercover work in a factory farm and/or processing plant inside Canada?  Unfortunately, based on my research on the Chicken Mafia in Canada, I'm sad to say it's likely as bad or worse in Canada as what Foster Farms got caught doing in the USA.

What are the opinions of CFC, CFO, and all the other provincial Chicken Boards about the incidents described in the video?  It is a long standing legal precedent that silence should be interpreted as acceptance.  Who will ask each and every one of these Canadian Chicken Boards, as well as the provincial and Federal supervising commissions what they have done (or will start doing) so that similar animal abuse in Canada's system will be prevented, and/or detected and remedial actions taken to prevent re-occurrence?

Today, I sent a link to this posting for both Foster Farms and the AHA, requesting their comments.  If I receive anything (which I doubt), I will post it so the world can clearly know their positions on the issues raised in this Blog posting.

Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada ("SFPFC")  has clearly defined its expectations for animal welfare.  See Clauses 2 and 3 of SFPFC's Principles.  Why hasn't the Chicken Mafia been able to do similarly?

Unfortunately, the Chicken Mafia gives all chicken farmers and chicken processors a bad name, even Small Flockers.

Hope for the Mega Meat Manufacturers?

Abuse of human rights can occur anywhere, even next door.  Unfortunately, this appears to be true for Canada's next door neighbour, the USA and the Mega Meat Manufacturers.

The Mega Meat Manufacturers are the Supply Management Mafia in Canada for poultry, and the US mega corps like Tyson. Perdue, etc.

Human Rights Watch Inc. ("HRW") is a 30 year old NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) charity that is based in United States and around the world.  Instead of focusing their efforts outwards around the world at social justice hotspots in the Third World, in 2004 HRW had to focus their attention on the US meat processing industry, resulting in their 184 page report:

BLOOD, SWEAT, AND FEAR: Workers’ Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants.

HRW's 2004 report can be compared to a similar publication back in 1906, just 98 years earlier.

The Jungle (also available as a free pdf or Ebook) was written in 1906 by Upton Sinclair.  This is a novel solidly based on facts about recent immigrants to the US who were working and being abused in the Chicago meat packing plants.  What really got citizens riled up though, were the unhealthy and despicable practices used by these all powerful meat packing mega corps so as to maximize their power and profits.

Upton Sinclair was surprised at the public expressing greater concern for the quality of the food placed on their plates by this devilish system, rather than the people who were virtual slaves being used and abused to get that meat to the consumer's dinner plates.  He later said,

"I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident hit its stomach."

It appears that the food industry didn't learn its former lessons, and the same needs to occur again.  This time, HRW has a facts-based report that may have missed both the heart and the stomach.

Based on what I know from personal experience in poultry processing plants in Canada, and the research that I have done for Canada and US processing plants, the report seems believable, is based on objective evidence, and is collaborated by all the other evidence I have.

However, will it cause or contribute to launching the necessary changes in the industry?

Since the report came out in 2004, 10 years have passed.  Has there been significant change?  Based on a Google search, the HWR report is mentioned on a labor law university course, a workers compensation website, and is cited in a few books.  Not exactly a steam roller of change.

It appears that the report was thrown into the public's lab, but nobody became a champion of the cause.  The author was a consultant hired by HRW, so I assume they went on to finding other projects to pay the bills.  HRW has hundreds of projects to concern themselves with, and I assume that some are even more dire and higher priority in the grand scheme than a few thousand lost souls in the US meat packing industry.  Should HRW have dropped everything else to focus all of their efforts onto this one single issue, until completion?  Was it reasonable to expect Tyson, Perdue, and the other mega corps to change their evil ways from one flashbulb that popped, flooded the scene in brilliant light, then quickly faded back to black?

What would Upton Sinclair have advised, or done differently if he had been asked to do the 2004 report by HRW?

Most important of all for this Blog about the small flock poultry system vs. Supply Management mega corps in Canada, is this a worthy cautionary tale that we can learn from?

I believe Canadians can learn vicariously from the dismal experience in the US poultry and meat packing business.  Here is what I suggest:

1. Organizations can only abuse people (whether customers, workers, suppliers, or others) only so much.  Multiply the severity, duration, and publicity of the abuse together as a measurement of the ticking abuse bomb.


2. Based on the measurement method in Item #1, I estimate that we have less than 20 years before this meat industry abuse bomb suddenly goes off at grave consequences for the meat mega corps.   In case this encourages the meat mega corps to blindly continuing on their current path for another 19 years, I caution them that these issues tend to change abruptly all at once (see The Tipping Point) so there is no time to lose with correcting these chronic, latent, and mis-guided plans and defects.


3. There are viable alternatives to the current methods employed.
   
   
   "For what will it profit a man
   if he gains the whole world
   and forfeits his soul?
   The Bible, Book of Mathew, 16:26


4. If the meat mega corps are unwilling or unable to change their evil ways (which is highly likely, for they don't believe their world could suddenly collapse under their feet), the citizens, consumers, and abused workers will need to act on their own to create a solution.


5. Remember, once a viable option begins to threaten the status quo, the mega meat manufacturers will attack, denounce, ridicule, or attempt to highjack the solution and destroy it before it hurts them.  Everyone will need to adequately protect themselves, as well as the solution.


6. Because of the high capitalization required, the lack of competition due to overlapping oligopolies, and regulatory capture enjoyed by the mega corps, the people will have to fight a guerrilla chicken war against the mega corps.  Frontal assault is not a winnable option.


7. There is likely 1 or more disgruntled chicken grower in every county who is currently, or previously been abused by the mega corps.  Being disgruntled most likely means they were blacklisted and are no longer a supplier to the mega corps.  Ask them to grow chicken for the local community on the basis of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), or some similar basis.  With a direct to customer model, that disillusioned farmer will be able to earn significantly more with a community based model, than what they previous earned through the mega corps.


8. Once the chickens are ready for harvesting, do a community-based chicken harvest similar to Connecticut's mobile abattoir system, or an on-farm processing similar to Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.
9. Enjoy your safe, nutritious, locally produced, affordable, and sustainable chicken

In another similar video, Joel Salatin relates how typical factory farm chicken that is processed through an USDA approved high speed abattoir typically has 3600 CFU (Colony Forming Units) of bacterial contamination on the chicken when sold in retail grocery stores, even after dunking and spraying with numerous noxious chemicals to limit bacteria contamination.

Joel has had his operation as shown in the video tested, and he came in at 133 CFU's; which is just 3.69% of the heavy industry mega meat manufacturing results.

While 0.0 CFU is the ideal, Joe's method certainly seems better than what I've seen of the high speed abattoir lines.  As an example of high speed abattoirs see: http://en.engormix.com/MA-poultry-industry/health/articles/intervention-strategies-reducing-salmonella-t1780/165-p0.htm   To me, this is pretty gruesome; no wonder mega meat manufacturers typically have 3,600 CFU

Joel's system is what we recommend for Canadian small flockers.

In speaking to Max Bert here on Manitoulin during a recent farm and abattoir tour of his place, he has had similar experiences and similar CFU results to Joel Salatin for his small, hands-on abattoir here on Manitoulin Island, Ontario Canada.

It won't be easy, nor will it occur over night, but we can leave the mega meat manufacturers to stew in their purulent chicken dunk tanks, and create a better way for ourselves.

Can CFO Prevent &/or Detect Animal Abuse?

Can CFO prevent animal cruelty, similar to what allegedly occurred (or is still occurring) at two Alberta #EggMafia chicken factories?

In a previous Blog posting on Animal Welfare, we noted that Chicken Farmers of Canada ("CFC") had reached an agreement in July 24, 2012 with all provinces to adopt CFC's animal welfare system (ACP).  Only six provinces (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, PE) have made ACP mandatory for their #ChickenMafia members.

To see what this is all about, we used Ontario as a test case.  Anybody can volunteer to do the same for all the other jurisdictions, send it to me, and I will post your results.

Chicken Farmers of Ontario ("CFO") has a new policy to implement ACP. CFO's new Policy 195-2013 for Food Safety & Animal Welfare was passed by the CFO Board on  Mar. 7, 2013 and came into force on April 21, 2013.  According to this policy, all #ChickenMafia farms in Ontario were to be audited and found to be compliant, or ready to be compliance audited on or before April 20, 2013.

This new policy has a few interesting or questionable features, as follows:

1. To have and keep quota allocation (ie. be licensed to produce chicken), the #ChickenMafia member must be compliant with this Policy.


2. CFO adopts CFC's On-Farm Food Safety Assurance Program, except that administering of vaccinations and medications to the birds must be documented and reported on Form 3, including those done at the hatchery.  According to Regulation 2446-2013, “Form 3” means a Flock Production and Marketing Form completed by a producer prior to processing as prescribed on the form. Under CFO's General Regulation 2422-2013, this Form 3 has to be filed with CFO within 10 business days (ie. 14 calendar days) after the birds arrived at the slaughter plant.  If the form(s) aren't filed or filed late, the #ChickenMafia members quota could be reduced by 100 kg. (ie. 50 birds, or $166 in gross sales, or about $30.00 in profit, or 0.2% of gross sales $).  In other words, a nuisance wrist slap.


3. If you are a brand new #ChickenMafia member, you get to practice on the Ontario public with the first 3 flocks your produce (ie. about 18 weeks, about 4.5 months), and will only be audited at the end of your practice period.  Guess where the most mistake and non-compliances are likely to occur?  I would think it would be a good idea that somebody from CFO was auditing 100% of the flocks at the beginning, middle, and end of the first three flocks so as to protect the #ChickenMafia member, as well as the public.  This seems to be very shortsighted, risky, and questionable practice by CFO.


4. CFO places each chicken factory on a 3 year audit schedule.  In the first year, CFO audits both the chicken factory and the documents produced and records kept by the site.  In year 2, CFO doesn't come to the chicken factory, they just look at the documents & records that are submitted for their inspection.  In year 3, CFO doesn't do anything, the #ChickenMafia member just sends CFO a letter telling them that everything is fine, and CFO takes their word for it.
   
   So let's assume that things start to go terribly wrong right after the CFO Auditors leave the chicken factory after Year 1 audit.  Of course, in Year 2 the farmer, knowing he is in trouble, will fudge the documents so as to keep CFO in the dark and keep those monthly cheques coming like clockwork.  In Year 3, the farmer sends the letter to CFO, and CFO files it.  In Year 4, CFO finally comes to the chicken factory and is shocked to see how bad things are.
   
   By that time, 3 years have gone by, and 650,000 chickens have been produced by this renegade farm, and eaten by the public in spite of their questionable quality.
   
   The big issue of course, is the torture that those 650,000 bird might have to suffer through before the renegade #ChickenMafia member is caught.  Is that an acceptable risk those chickens are willing to take?  Will the animal rights people allow the CFO to put that many birds at risk for that long with little or no hope of being rescued from their fate?  To me, this doesn't seem acceptable.
   
   The only additional system is that CFO will randomly select 10% of the #ChickenMafia members who are in Year 2 or Year 3 of the cycle for an on-farm audit.  Not very good odds of finding that renegade farm.
   
   In comparison, under the international quality standard ISO 9001 and ISO 16485 which are used to manufacture good like TV's and cars, an annual on-site audit by an independent third party auditor is mandatory.  No exceptions.  But alas, we're only going to feed the chicken to our family.  CFO must assume that the quality of our TV picture is far more important to get right than the quality of chicken.


5. If a #ChickenMafia member is found to be non-compliant, a corrective action request can be issued.


6. The #ChickenMafia member can appeal an audit result, and get an overturning of audit results in 10 days, or confirmed.  I wonder how often that overturning of audit results happens?  Sorry, that's top secret too.


7. The #ChickenMafia member is required to agree in writing that they will stay compliant to the requirements between audits.  A promise easily made, and easily broken; especially when it's 4 years to the next verification audit.


8. Unfortunately, there is no requirement for a #CHickenMafia member to inform CFO prior to making any change in their approved process.  This has a significant risk associated with keeping CFO in the dark.


9. The #ChickenMafia member is only required to keep books and records available for 2 years.  What?!?  We just showed above that it can be 4 years between on-site auditing.  All the past sins can be hidden by disposal of the records just before the auditor shows up for the next on-site audit.  The Year 2 audit specifically states that it is a partial or subset audit, not a comprehensive document audit.  This appears to be the Achilles' Heel of the CFO compliance and auditing system.


10. There is no defined criteria for CFO's auditors.  Do they have the attitude, education, skills, and experience to be an effective auditor?  Did they receive any training in chickens, and/or auditing?  We'll never know, for CFO's system is silent on this issue.  For all we know, CFO had an excellent janitor who cleaned the offices, and the next day they were promoted to be Chief Auditor for CFO.  Another huge weakness in the system.  I suggest all audits and auditors must be done in compliance with ISO 19011:2011 or equivalent.


11. If a #ChickenMafia member is unwilling or unable to meet these standards, they can always request to have the requirement waived by the CFO Board by filling in a form.  Of course, this is top secret, and nobody is permitted to find out how often this has occurred.  Only the CFO Board knows for sure.

Conclusion

CFO's animal welfare system is better than nothing, but has some very significant holes in it, thereby putting the animals, CFO, the #ChickenMafia members, and the public at significant risk.

CFO's system need immediate and significant improvements.

Questions

1. Are you satisfied with CFO's current system for preventing and/or minimizing the severity and duration of animal abuse within the #ChickenMafia system?
   
2. Do you support the comments and recommendations I have made on CFO's ACP system?
   
3. Do you have additional recommendations for improving CFO's ACP?

Comments section below is now open.  Operators are standing by to receive your comments, emails, faxes, or phone calls.

Chicken Factory

Food Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner.  The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy, in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and employees.

The above video clip from Food Inc. is for chickens.

It is recommended to see the whole documentary.  For critical reviews, see Top Documentaries or PBS.org

To watch the full documentary, try Netflicks

To buy the movie, it's $17.99 from PBS   Invite your family and friends over, watch it, and discuss it.  Better yet, rent your local community hall and invite the whole neighbourhood.

How is chicken farming different for Small Flockers?

Read SFPFC's Principles or download an Adobe Acrobat pdf version of SFPFC's Principles, ready to print off.

Small Flockers need to be humble.  Small Flockers are far from perfect.  However, I believe Small Flockers are guided by reasonable and effective principles.  With these Principles, we need to practice them to perfection.

Unfortunately, it seems that the #ChickenMafia are not only arrogant, they have lousy, wrong-headed principles.  Not only are the #ChickenMafia principles dysfunctional, there is significant cheating by some members of the #ChickenMafia which has documented examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I trust that there are some members of Canada's #ChickenMafia who are at (or soon will be approaching) their breaking point, just like Ms Carole Morison in the Food Inc. documentary.  When the documentary was being made, she was a contracted chicken grower for Perdue Farms in the US; Perdue being one of the King Kong gorillas in the US #ChickenMafia.  For speaking out, she lost her Perdue contract shortly after appearing in the documentary.  The #ChickenMafia is rotting from the inside, as it is attacked from the outside.  Where should they go to hide?

As more and more of the members of the #ChickenMafia become disgusted, change will occur.

In spite of this turmoil both inside and out, the #ChickenMafia try to perfect the implementation of their dysfunctional principles.  The #ChickenMafia has lost their way.

That's why this Blog exists.

Hopefully, we can all learn and grow together in time.

The showdown for the #ChickenMafia is coming soon enough.

Animal Abuse: Prevent & Detect

The #EggMafia have lost their way.

How else can we describe what has happened in the alleged abuse of chicks and layer hens at two farms in Alberta.  See our previous Blog post for details on this tragedy.

Not so fast, says Egg Farmers of Alberta, and Egg Farmers of Canada.  Their Egg Farmers of Canada website, says:

"Egg farmers’ number one priority has always been the health and well-being of their laying hens."

 I'm sure the birds appreciate the words, if not the actions by Egg Farmers of Canada ("EFC") and the  farmer in Alberta who is an alleged animal abusers to back up the words.

Since the birds are #1 priority, does that mean us humans, and the delivery of safe, fresh, nutritious eggs to us paying customers is #2 priority?  That of course, is an assumption on my part.

What Egg Farmers of Canada do say is:

Canada’s egg farmers place a high premium on safeguarding Canada’s food supply and are always striving for continuous improvement in their farming practices. Dedicated to Quality, our corporate tagline, is our ongoing guarantee to Canadians to ensure that our eggs are among the best in the world on the basis of quality, freshness and safety.

So us human customers should feel safe and trust the egg farmers because those egg farmers "place a high premium" on food safety.  I don't exactly know what that is supposed to mean.  It's seems like some marketing guru dreamed it up for them, akin to George Orwell's Newspeak in his book 1984.  Useless generalities, if not outright propaganda.

EFC's website   says EFC's Food Quality & Safety program includes:

"Inspecting all regulated egg farmers annually. Farmers are assessed by inspectors trained by EFC against key critical control points."

I have some questions for EFC:

1. What were the dates of those EFC inspections for the two Alberta farms that were recently alleged to have had animal abuse for their chicks and/or layers?
2. Can EFC provide me with copies of these audit reports?  If not, why not?  If no copies of the audit reports will be provided, can you provide the audit scores, or number of non-compliances found, or number of non-recommended practices found, or number of recommendations made?  If not, why not?
   
   
3. Did the scope of these annual EFC inspections include animal welfare issues?  If not, why not?
4. Did EFC or a third party ever audit these farms for animal welfare issues as part of that audit?  If yes, what was the date of those audits for these two farms?
5. What is the EFC mandated attitude, training, education, skills, and prior experience of the EFC's inspectors that qualifies them to do these inspections?
6. Can you supply me with a copy of these documented requirements for EFC's Inspectors?  If not, why not?
7. Can EFC supply me with substantial objective evidence that clearly shows these EFC inspectors who did these 2 farms were qualified to do so?  If not, why not?
8. Can EFC supply me with substantial objective evidence that clearly shows that all non-compliances or recommended improvements were promptly implemented by these two farms, and these corrective actions were subsequently re-inspected by an independent inspector and found to be 100% complete, consistently applied, and effective?  If not, why not?

I have sent an email to Alison Hebbs, Manager of Corporate and Public Affairs for Egg Farmers of Canada, with all of these questions.

There are 16 Board Members and 7 staff at EFC; none of whom have contact information published on EFC's website, and so hide behind Ms Alison Hebbs, who is the only person I can find at EFC who has contact phone # and email address.  Is this the best EFC can do for open, transparent, and accountable?

I'm sure Alison and her staff are busy people these days.  We'll have to wait to see what they say.

Throwing Eggs + Pointing Fingers

The media campaigns and Spin Doctors are busy, trying to make the #EggMafia 's chicken abuse issue go away.

I have collected together a few links on the evolving saga of chicken abuse at two #EggMafia farms in Alberta Canada on which I previously Blogged.

Since  the video was first released, almost everyone is running away and distancing itself from this disaster, with the exception of the media, and a few brave (or dumb) individuals.  To save themselves, Burnbrae Farms, the buyer/contractor for the two accused #EggMafia farms, has thrown them under the bus, and stopped buying eggs from them.  McDonald's Restaurants, who has Burnbrae as their sole egg supplier, claims no connection with the accused farms.  Egg Farmers of Alberta went into high alert, sending an emergency email/fax to all its #EggMafia members alerting them to refuse all farm visitors, and not to answer any inquiries from anybody, then refused to acknowledge or discuss the video themselves.

Since then, the #EggMafia have retained the services of 1 or more media gurus and Spin Doctors to try and put out the flames they ignited on themselves.  Ontario Farmer Magazine calls it #EggMafia "damage control".

Better Farming has added that the Egg Farmers of Canada, the Canada-wide Don of the #EggMafia, have hired the USA-based Center for Food Integrity to analyze the video showing the alleged abuse of chickens to get an opinion from them as to whether abuse occurred or not.

I'm not sure why the #EggMafia needed to distance itself from deciding whether the shocking video depicts standard farm practices, or abuse of chickens.  To me, the video clearly depicted abuse and unacceptable practices.  I guess it's easier and less messy when you use a hired gun, rather than do the dirty work yourself.    The only questions were whether the video was staged, and when/where the actions depicted occurred.  That required expertise in forensic science and video taping, not egg farming expertise.

MikeTheChickenVet couldn't resist, and had many interesting points.  MikeTheChickenVet tries to dismiss the video by suggesting what would a video of any of us look like if somebody snooped on us with secret surveillance for 5 weeks, then created a "5 Minutes of Horrors" from those 5 weeks of video.  As a practicing vet in Ontario who earns his living working for the #EggMafia, his point of view is quite understandable.  After I found his viewpoint, I sent him a link to my Blog posting and asked for his comments.  All of a sudden, he doesn't have much to say about the 9 questions I posed for the #EggMafia, to answer except:

chickenvet | October 22, 2013 at 11:31 pm | Reply

Glen, I have no answer to any of your questions. I’m not directly involved with the farm, and you seem to have your mind made up already, in any case.

I find it ironic how every one of the websites for the #EggMafia focus primarily on rainbows, unicorns, and sunshine, and how their eggs are produced by their family of families, so that consumer's families can have eggs.  Trust us, they whisper, again and again.

I'm not buying it.

There has been a serious breach of trust.  The #EggMafia needs to make significant, across the board change.  Neither media spin, nor unicorns and rainbows, will cover it up and make it all go away.

I hope all Small Flockers can, and do learn, some significant lessons from the crumbling empire of the #EggMafia.

Breach of Trust by Egg Mafia?

A video alleging neglect and abuse of chicks and laying hens on two Alberta Canada factory farms operated by members of Alberta's #EggMafia is available here and mainstream media reports here.  The undercover video is embedded below:



Alberta Chicken Producers ("ACP", one of the Supply Management governing body for Alberta's Chicken Mafia) has an interesting slide deck on trust, and building consumer confidence. Quite a contrast between the training course and what we see in this shocking video.

I suggest downloading a copy of this training course, as it may soon disappear.

http://www.chicken.ab.ca/images/stories/pdf/2013-charlie-arnot-building-public-trust.pdf

If it does disappear, I have archived a copy here, as of 2013/10/22 13:30 EDT:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3ti601il76ldz3/2013-charlie-arnot-building-public-trust.pdf

Based on this presentation, I conclude that ACP knew better.

Egg Farmers of Alberta ("EFA") is the Egg Mafia's governing body for egg producers in Alberta.  Do they talk to the boys over at ACP?  Did EFA have a similar policy and training program?  I can't find anything to that effect on EFA's website except a press release about slow transition away from battery cage systems.  If ACP knew better, then I can only assume that EFA knew better, or should have known better, but these shocking allegations come to light while under their watchful (or blindfolded) eyes.

Egg carton crafts by EFA. 
Don't they have something more important to
do with their limited time and resources?

It seems EFA's main focus for some time now is on egg recipes and egg carton crafts for kids. Recipes that use eggs are already available from many sources.  I'm sure kids enjoy the craft projects, but is that really EFA's top #1 priority, or should EFA focus first on more important issues?

Once EFA has all their top priority work done (eg. animal welfare, egg prices dropping due to better productivity, etc.) everything is running well, and all risks are contained, then and only then should EFA feel free to play with their egg carton artwork all day.    Prevention and ensuring of animal welfare by and for the Egg Mafia must come first and foremost.

Is EFA solely and exclusively re-arranging the deck chairs to make them pretty when they should be in the wheelhouse bridge, watching for and avoiding ice burgs?  No wonder the Egg Mafia and Supply Management is sinking like the Titanic.

"I share in the public's response to the video. The images were unacceptable."— Peter Clarke, Board Chairman, Egg Farmers of Canada
                                                        as quoted by CBC News

Egg Farmers of Canada ("EFC") sets the standards and expectations on a Canada-wide basis for egg farms; or they're supposed to.  Setting adequate and enforceable standards, then regular auditing to those standards is one of the three mandatory governance roles for EFC.  Corrective actions and continuous improvement are the other two legs of this three legged governance stool.  Did EFC do an adequate job in its important public trust?

Should everybody be held equally responsible?  By that I mean all who were directly and indirectly involved (ie. EFA, EFC, ACP, the farmer who owned the quota for the accused chicken factories, and the employees who did the actions and inactions complained against)?

Let's not forget what Farm Products Council of Canada ("FPCC") was doing while all of this was going on.  FPCC is supposed to be checking to make sure the overall egg supply management system is working well, and all of these other organizations (EFC, EFA, ACP, etc. ) are doing their job.  Did FPCC do an adequate job of auditing and supervising their charges?  Could FPCC have done differently years ago, so as to reduce the probability of this alleged abuse occurring?

If the video is real and a fair representation of events, I suggest there has been a breach of the public's trust, in addition to any civil and/or criminal charges that may soon be laid.

Trust is formed and protected by 4 factors:

1. Benevolent best interest of the other party
2. Open and honest communication
3. Competency
4. Predictable behaviour

When something like the Alberta chicken scandal occurs, I suggest that this wasn't the treatment that the chickens wanted nor expected to receive, nor the public (ie. breach of public trust).  Hindsight may soon prove that actions were negligent or worse,  and are therefore probably not in those Egg Mafia  farmer's best interest either, neither in the short term nor long term.

Arising from the factors affecting trust, I have some questions:

1. Was there open & honest communication:
• on the farm between the workers and the farm owner?
• were all employees required to report all suspected incidents of abuse, crime, or risky behaviours by anybody on staff, suppliers, or visitors?
• between the farmer and his customers, such as McDonald's Restaurants?
• between the farmer and Egg Farmers of Alberta ("EFA")?
• EFA farm inspectors and the EFA Board?
• EFA Board and the  public?
2. Who knew this was going on & when did they know?  Was there a duty to act so as to stop it, or report it to authorities?
3. Did EFA mislead the public by re-assuring us that all was well, that all animals within their Egg Mafia systems were being properly cared for?
• Did they have objective evidence to back up those assurances? 
• Did they know those assurances were true?  
• Did they care whether those assurances were 100% fair and true, mis-leading, distracting from the true issues, or not true?
• Did they disclose their assumptions?
4. Was there proper training for employees at those farms, as provided by the farm owner(s)?
5. Did the Egg Mafia farmer(s) adequately supervise, audit, and inspect his operations, and the work habits of his staff?
6. How did the farm owners objectively prove that employee training was effective, and being consistently followed?
7. Was EFA competent and effective in the regulations and  rules it established that could have prevented these alleged acts from occurring, or detected them earlier?
8. Did EFA define, provide, and ensure that quota holders received adequate training, and had full comprehension, and consistently practiced those training and expectations?
9. If yes to all the above, how do we explain the alleged acts that we see in the video?

These are some tough questions that need to be answered.

In time, we will learn if these allegations are true.

In the interim, I conclude there is already more than enough evidence to convict Canada's Egg Mafia and the Supply Management System for both chicken and eggs as being chronically dysfunctional, ineffective, wrong headed, costly, inefficient, an embarrassment to all Canadians, and desperately in need of immediate reform.