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Care for the animals

Education and warnings are the best tools for altering the behaviour of livestock haulers and handlers who disregard safety requirements, say investigators involved with Alberta’a livestock emergency response program.

Education and warnings are the best tools for altering the behaviour of livestock haulers and handlers who disregard safety requirements, say investigators involved with Alberta’a livestock emergency response program.

A monkey can write a ticket, RCMP livestock investigator Dave Heaslip said during a presentation to the Alberta Farm Animal Care annual conference in Red Deer on Friday. But writing a ticket and leaving it at that doesn’t go far in changing behaviour, said Heaslip.

He and animal programs inspector Heather Willis from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Wetaskiwin have teamed up to promote compliance with federal laws aimed at keeping farm animals as safe as possible on Alberta highways.

Heaslip and Willis have been conducting AFAC’s certification course for livestock transportation out of the Vold Jones Vold livestock market at Ponoka. Developed by AFAC, the course includes information on federal legislation governing the conditions under which animals are to be hauled as well as procedures for handling animals in emergencies.

It attempts to convince truckers and handlers of the legal and moral reasons they are bound to refuse animals that are lame, sick, emaciated or otherwise compromised, said Willis.

It also describes legal requirements for protecting animals during shipping and shows the ways handlers can avoid injury and stress to themselves and the animals with which they are working.

While truckers now have a choice in whether or not they wish be become certified, taking part in the program may become necessary in the future to meet requirements of the plants and feedlots to which they are hauling, said Willis.

She and Heaslip have now certified about 150 truckers, handlers and emergency responders.

Information about the course and other livestock transportation is available online at www.livestocktransport.ca

bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com