MILTON—Animal Justice is urgently calling for an investigation by animal protection authorities following a tragic crash involving a transport truck carrying live chickens that rolled over on Highway 401 west of James Snow Parkway in Milton.
Animal Justice has reviewed footage provided by an eyewitness on the scene—a former Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspector named David Magina who previously worked at chicken slaughterhouse Maple Lodge Farms, where the birds were being sent. Mr. Magina’s footage depicts hundreds of chickens spilling out of tiny crates, many of them crushed, injured, and dead. There were no veterinarians apparent on the scene.
It’s illegal under the Criminal Code, federal transport laws, and Ontario’s provincial animal welfare laws to cause animals to suffer during transport. It’s also a legal responsibility for the owner of an animal to alleviate suffering caused by injury. However, transporters are seldom held accountable for the deaths and suffering of animals who are regularly killed in truck crashes.
As a result, in addition to its calls for a thorough investigation into the crash, Animal Justice is filing an animal cruelty complaint with the CFIA and provincial Animal Welfare Services to ensure that those responsible for this incident are held accountable under the law.
“It was heartbreaking to see so many suffering, injured, and dead chickens strewn across the wreckage,” said David Magina. “I saw no attempt by the company or others on the scene to get veterinary care for the injured birds, and no care was provided to them. Due to the torrential weather in the Greater Toronto Area this morning, the chickens were also wet, which would have caused additional suffering and death to them as they would be unable to regulate their body temperatures.”
“Truck rollovers and other crashes involving large numbers of farmed animals occur far too frequently, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice. “The CFIA and AWS are law enforcement agencies and should prosecute violators, instead of letting transport companies and slaughterhouses repeatedly escape sanction for harming animals during transport, and failing to provide any veterinary care to injured animals after crashes occur.”
A copy of video footage shot at the scene is available here.
Contact:
Josh Lynn
Public Relations Manager
[email protected]
