Farmers Forum staff
OTTAWA — The enforcement grace period on Canada’s updated livestock trucking regulations ended last February and has not been extended, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
A two-year “compliance promotion period” around mandated intervals for feeding, watering and resting animals in transport ended on Feb. 20 of this year. The CFIA originally told Farmers Forum in a Sept. 8 email that an “additional two-year compliance promotion period” had been provided.
The agency reached out Sept. 23 to clarify that is no longer the case. Since Feb. 20, the CFIA has been exercising its “discretionary power to enforce all humane transport requirements and to prevent and act on animal welfare situations,” it says.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s amendment to regulations under the Humane Transportation of Animals compels anyone transporting cattle and other livestock, even if it’s just one kilometre down the road, to possess paperwork showing those animals were properly treated before they boarded.
The rules were designed to cover long-haul more than 24-hour travel but affects all movement of cattle off the farm.
