Activists release footage from a pig farm in Quebec - Christiane Bailey on TVA Nouvelles

Animal rights activists reveal abuses on a pig farm in Quebec and Federal Bill C-275 threatens to put them in jail. 

Shocking images taken by animal rights activists in a pig nursery were broadcast on TVA Nouvelles on October 25. They show dying piglets shaking and spasming, corpses in garbage cans and sows locked in tiny cages where they can neither turn around nor walk. 

Christiane Bailey, researcher in animal ethics and coordinator of the Social Justice Centre, was interviewed by Michel Jean on TVA.

She explained that when baby piglets are deemed too weak, sick or injured to withstand fattening, they are not cared for, but killed because they are useless. Their lives have no commercial value. Often, they are disposed of by grabbing them by the hind legs and slamming them violently against a hard surface until they die. The other pigs will be killed at 5-6 months of age, when they could live for 15 years. 

Mutilations without anesthesia are systematic: piglets are castrated to avoid an unpleasant taste for consumers, and their tails are cut off to prevent them from chewing themselves due to their stressful, monotonous environment. 

Pigs are as sensitive, intelligent, and social as dogs. They experience what happens to them consciously, they have a psychological life and feel emotions. 

Pigs are also domesticated species, selectively bred to develop traits that are useful to us. They are now dependent on our care and under our total control and dominion. They have the right to be protected, rescued, and cared for. 

Quebec law has stipulated since 2015 that we have collective and individual responsibilities towards animals. It’s the role of governments to protect domesticated or captive animals. If the state fails to do so, it is the duty of citizens to act. Activists enable informed social debate (other than from industry sources). This is essential to have an open social dialogue and to make informed decisions.

People think that animals are now being protected in Quebec under the Animal Welfare and Safety Act. However, they don't know that farm animals are excluded from these protections when standard practices are being followed. In other words, the industry regulates itself. 

At the provincial level, many ag-gag bills sponsored by the livestock industry aim to hide the realities endured by animals by threatening whistleblowers with harsh penalties. At the federal level, Bill C-275, which is currently being debated, threatens to jail animal advocates who expose to the public the suffering inflicted on animals.

Link to the original footage by activists: https://youtu.be/YCgqEHEDrWA?si=vV4SJiXBZqCoRgZL

Link to the TVA Nouvelles news: https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2023/10/25/production-de-porcs-des-conditions-delevage-epouvantables-dans-une-maternite-de-lanaudiere