To protect farmed animals, Canada must end industry self-regulation
Denmark’s recent decision to appoint a dedicated minister for animal welfare is a telling sign of how modern governments are re-evaluating public policy when it comes to animals. It shows an understanding of evolving social values and concern for species other than our own. It also reflects a broader international movement toward meaningful protection for animals raised and killed for food.
The Danish government completely dismantled its 130-year-old Ministry of Agriculture. By breaking up its responsibilities across five separate departments, commercial agri-business interests can no longer dictate environmental and welfare policies. When economic promotion and animal protection share the same institutional home, welfare naturally lacks a dedicated, independent voice to ensure baseline standards keep pace with science and public values.
While our peers convert the latest animal welfare science and evolving social expectations into legally binding protections, Canada remains a stark international outlier, earning a disappointing "D" grade on the World Animal Protection Index.
Canada has no federal laws establishing enforceable on-farms standards to protect the welfare of these animals. Instead, the federal government has effectively outsourced much of this responsibility to an industry-dominated self-regulation model managed by the National Farm Animal Care Council.
Under this system, routine agricultural practices—no matter how much pain or suffering they cause—are insulated from animal protection laws through sweeping exemptions.
In stark contrast to international standards, Canadian facilities still routinely confine mother pigs in gestation crates, which are cages barely larger than their own bodies, while millions of egg-laying hens remain trapped in crowded wire cages so small that each bird is allocated less space than a single sheet of paper.
Piglets routinely undergo painful mutilations, including castration and tail-docking, without any pain relief. Millions of newborn male chicks are ground up alive as a standard disposal method in the egg industry.
For weak or injured piglets, industry-approved killing methods include blunt-force trauma—slamming them headfirst against concrete floors.
Because standards are primarily established via voluntary industry codes rather than legislation, these practices remain lawful simply because they comply with accepted industry norms. It is a circular, unaccountable system that normalizes practices most Canadians would find alarming.
Canada’s peers have chosen a different path. The United Kingdom banned restrictive cages for pregnant pigs back in 1999, prohibited small wire cages for egg-laying hens in 2012, and has largely avoided piglet castration entirely by transitioning its market to intact males. Where the procedure is still performed, jurisdictions like Germany and France have passed strict federal laws explicitly banning piglet castration without anesthesia.
In December 2025, England announced that it would phase out the use of all cages for hens as well as crates for pigs by 2030. Similarly, New Zealand passed a comprehensive legislative phase-out of gestation crate use for pregnant pigs in 2015, and Austria has banned all cages for hens as of 2020. But instead of clear statutory baselines, Canada has languished, relying on industry-created, voluntary standards..
To bridge the gap between Canadian values and regulatory reality, federal lawmakers must introduce a comprehensive Animal Welfare Act to establish clear, enforceable statutory duties of care. This should be accompanied by independent governance structures, similar to those adopted in Denmark, such as a dedicated federal minister or an independent commissioner of animal welfare to insulate the regulatory watchdog from commercial trade promotion.
Denmark isn't alone in recognizing the need for reform. The European Union established a dedicated commissioner for health and animal welfare to provide leadership on animal welfare policy across member states. Also Germany and Austria utilize independent animal welfare commissioner roles to provide a dedicated public-interest perspective in policy decisions. These countries also rely on comprehensive federal statutes that directly dictate baseline standards of care and have built systems designed for true accountability.
A recent landmark report compiled by a coalition of Canada’s leading animal law and welfare groups, Towards a National Framework for Farmed Animal Protection, not only exposes the deep-seated structural failures of our current system, but provides a clear, actionable roadmap for federal lawmakers to build a credible public law framework. If Canada wishes to remain aligned with evolving public expectations and international best practices, we must replace industry-led self-regulation with transparent laws, independent oversight, and meaningful enforcement.
Alanna Devine is a lawyer and director of advocacy at Animal Justice, a national animal law advocacy organization.
The Hill Times