Correct Balance Important When Revamping Pig Code of Practice

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Correct Balance Important When Revamping Pig Code of Practice

05 June 2012

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CANADA - The chair of the National Farm Animal Care Council's Pig Code Development Committee says it's important to strike the right balance as Canadian pork industry stakeholders revamp the Pig Code of Practice, Bruce Cochrane writes.

The Pig Code of Practice outlines minimum standards for the care of swine.

The National Farm Animal Care Council's Pig Code Development Committee is drafting a revised code which it expects to have ready for public review this summer.

Committee Chair Florian Possberg notes in some provinces the code is actually written right in regulation as the standard for the care of swine and is really the basis of what's acceptable.

Florian Possberg-Pig Code Development Committee

World wide there's all kinds of different thoughts from people that believe that animals shouldn't be used at all for human use to ones that have the opposite thoughts and animals are there only for our use without any restrictions and so we have to find the right balance.

Producers, when they build facilities to house and care for animals, these facilities can have 25 year lifetime usage and so they really need to know what's acceptable so they can design and operate facilities that are appropriate.

People, the general public want to know that their food is produced in a safe and humane way and that's really what the code is about, is trying to find what is acceptable practices.

Mr Possberg says the goal is to have a new code ready for publication by June or July of next year.

He admits we know that we're not going to come up with a code that will be widely accepted so it'll be a judgment between what some people want and what others expect and it's important that we strike the right balance.