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Members of the National Farm Animal Care Council's Pig Code Development Committee met in August to discuss public comments on a draft updated Pig Code of Practice and will meet again in November.
Committee chair Florian Possberg notes the process requires committee members to reach consensus before the code can be finalized.
"Probably the most controversial area is the use of gestation stalls. There we heard comments from consumers that they would, generally speaking, like to see more loose housing and from producers we really heard the opposite largely. That was that for existing producers to convert their gestation systems to a loose housing system was really problematic and in some cases they expressed that it would put them out of business so quite strong views from both sides of the opinion.
We also heard comments on painful procedures, castration, space allowance, lighting, all kinds of things.
Going into it we thought we would have probably more interest in sow housing and space allowance and painful procedures and that was the case. That was really where the most comments were focused on."
Possberg notes, once consensus is reached on a final Pig Code of Practice, it will take some time to complete and translate the document. He says the goal of completing the code by the end of 2013 is unlikely to be met but committee members are working to deal with the big issues as quickly as possible in hopes of getting it out as early in 2014 as possible.
September 19, 2013 - Alberta Pork
