Across Canada, there are a number of whistleblowers on hog farms. Whenever a small issue arises, several people get involved. Technicians make weekly visits to the farms and agronomists and veterinarians come to check the feed and the substances injected into the animals. For each animal, a treatment record must be kept for a given period. The assessments conducted by these people are verified at the end of the year by an external auditor. This auditor may cause them to lose their veterinarian or agronomist designation if they fail to meet the criteria of the verifications conducted. If producers don't do their job properly, they may be subject to penalties such as the revocation of their right to sell their animals in a slaughterhouse inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA.
Next there are the processors and the CFIA, which conducts a check every time an animal enters the slaughterhouse. If there's any suspicion that an animal may have been mistreated in some manner, or if the animal has red spots or a mark on its back that looks unusual, the CFIA immediately calls the producer; the department of agriculture, fisheries and food, or MAPAQ; and Les Éleveurs de porcs du Québec, which I represent, to report the case. This can happen occasionally. However, there's almost always an immediate reason or recommendation, such as a repair that must be done or a pen that needs cleaning.
We take action, and this makes the farmers' job extremely precise. Many people interact and none of them can circumvent the process and hope to not get caught. It's very clear to us that no one can avoid the verification process.