DPAC Position and Policy Regarding Incidents of Animal Abuse/Cruelty

October 2016 –

DPAC and its members view any mistreatment of animals as unacceptable.

In the event of an alleged animal abuse/cruelty situation from a credible source, it is the expectation of DPAC and its members that:

• provincial authorities will suspend a producer’s license and hence milk pickup from the implicated farm,
• provincial authorities will notify processors immediately of such a circumstance and provide processors with all relevant information,
• milk from an implicated farm will not be shipped to dairy processors until such time as assurance is provided by a third-party veterinary animal welfare auditor (i.e. a veterinarian with no association to the implicated farm who is trained in conducting animal welfare audits) that there is compliance with the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle, and, the farm is cleared by the provincial authorities to ship milk.

As such, it is DPAC’s policy that, in response to an alleged animal abuse/cruelty situation from a credible source, DPAC members will not accept milk from an implicated farm until such time as:

• a third-party veterinary animal welfare audit has validated compliance with the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle; and,
• the farm is cleared by the provincial authorities to ship milk.