I find it very frustrating. For instance, on the topic of the animals not having enough room and our not meeting the standards, we actually meet the standards. Nobody has provided any information saying that we don't meet the standards set forth by IATA. I have information saying we do.
For horses going to Japan, it's three per crate, per IATA standards. They require 1.73 metres squared. We give them 2.12 metres squared, so we exceed IATA, the Health of Animals Act, Whiting research and codes of practice. We exceed them.
I find it very frustrating when we keep getting told they don't have room, but nobody has ever told us what room they believe they have. It's just that they look cramped. They have plenty of headroom. We are in full compliance with headroom in IATA standards. I sit on the CR2 and CR3 committees that write these standards. They just can't have continual contact with the roof. The ears of horses in stalls touch the roof of the stalls, so we are in compliance.
The information I provide you is based on me actually standing there, right at the trailer, alongside CFIA. CFIA might not know it, but I actually audit CFIA as part of my audit. I audit to our welfare standards. We see the fitness of the horses. I'm at the feedlot when those horses load out. Those horses live their lives together all the time. They don't suddenly become unfamiliar during the trailer ride.
One of the best ways that I try to explain this to people—and it's something that I actually document in my audit—is with the time to load. I time it from the minute the gate opens until the minute the gate closes on that crate. How long does it take to put those three horses in that crate? In Winnipeg, it's 17 seconds. In Calgary, it's about 22.5 seconds, because there's just a little more distance to walk.
You cannot cram three draft-sized horses that are unfamiliar and don't want to get along into a container in that amount of time.