Skip to content

Livestock transport needs to take next step ... otherwise government will do it for the industry

Depending on the season, millions of head of livestock and poultry are riding on liners and trailers across North America every day.

Depending on the season, millions of head of livestock and poultry are riding on liners and trailers across North America every day. For the most part that vast movement goes on without much incident. Sure there are accidents and depending on the severity of the incident they can garner considerable local publicity – usually of the gore and morbid variety. That can't be helped; it's no different from severe accidents involving humans. Considering the numbers involved, it's amazing that there are not more livestock transport accidents. Much of that credit goes to professional livestock truck drivers. But it's not the accidents that are the overarching concern, it's the perception and image of livestock transportation in the public eye. As you probably expect, it's the usual suspects and their nefarious motives that are and will be driving this situation.

A perusal of animal rights lobby group websites (e.g. BC SPCA for one) show many are trying to expose the alleged evils of transporting livestock and poultry. The usual inflammatory tactic is to show horrific and gory images of accidents. Some appear photo shopped and out of date, but that matters little to such groups who shamelessly engage in shock imagery and fearmongering. After all, in the animal rights publicity war all is fair and facts are ignored as inconvenient truths. The concern here is that the cattle and meat industry needs to be proactive in dealing with livestock transportation perceptions before it suddenly becomes a bigger issue. Fortunately, in Alberta, we have been blessed with an enlightened organization that has taken initiatives that have seen transportation standards considerably improved.

An initiative developed by the Alberta Farm Animal Care Association is the Certified Livestock Transporter program. That involved a series of specific courses for livestock truck drivers and others connected to the movement and handling of livestock and poultry. That program proved to be so popular that it was spun off into a private entity that carries out programs and events across the continent. That program has contributed to the safe and humane handling of livestock by the transportation industry. A follow-up to that by AFAC was a program that saw the creation of specialised emergency livestock handling equipment trailers positioned at 11 locations across the province. Those trailers and their equipment have become vital to dealing with accidents in the public transportation of livestock. As successful as those programs have become, there remains a need to deal with the transport vehicle itself – mainly the liner or trailer that is actually carrying the livestock. It should be noted that the poultry industry has taken some steps in addressing better, more efficient and more humane ways of handling and moving birds. It's the transportation of cattle, hogs and other livestock that hasn't been improved much from a mechanical perspective.

In fact, the basic design of cattle liners hasn't changed for over 60 years, it's been fine-tuned, but its shortcomings are visible to most folks driving by any truck loaded with cattle or hogs. It may not mean much to us in the business, but the sight of a manure splattered moving cage loaded with frightened livestock on their way to a terminal fate is quite disconcerting to squeamish city folks. Anti-meat lobby groups are quick to capitalize on such imagery, especially if it involves livestock death and mayhem from accidents. To change that channel, the industry should consider looking at very different types of transport liners – such equipment exists in Europe. The Europeans have developed large liners that are almost fully enclosed, have mechanical ventilation, hydraulically raised floors, water availability and they enclose all manure and waste. From the outside, it would be hard to know that the liner is transporting livestock and that's good for public perception. I would also suggest that the advanced features of these transports would reduce death, injury and bruising losses – something that should interest packers, growers and insurance companies.

A transport company in eastern Canada has imported just such an advanced cattle liner and is testing its adaptability to North American conditions. It's more than twice as costly to buy as our standard liners, but early indications are that it does reduce shrink and other losses. Best of all, it doesn't look like a classic liner. Surely, the best features of such liner could be incorporated into the next generation of North American cattle liners. It would be a pro-active approach in addressing a situation that sooner or later will be forced on the industry by government or public perception.