The heat dome caused heartbreaking losses for British Columbia ranchers, documents show

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It wasn’t just humans who suffered during the deadly heat dome that hit BC in June.

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At least 651,000 animals died on farms as a result of the heat wave, the vast majority of them chickens and other poultry, according to records obtained by animal justice defender Camille Labchuk through a freedom of information request.

Chickens are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat because they cannot sweat to cool down. During a heat wave, birds may pant, flap their feathers, or spread their wings to try to cool off, but they require additional help: cooling pads, tunnel ventilation, and fans.

Documents obtained by Labchuk, CEO of Animal Justice, show that the BC Chicken Marketing Board recorded 416,146 deaths during the June 24-30 heat dome, the BC Egg Marketing Board 145,000 deaths, the BC 61,000 BC Turkey Marketing Board and the BC Broiler Hatchery Eggs reported a loss of 29,210 animals.

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Labchuk said he is concerned that provincial legislation has been violated. According to Section 9.1 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, it is a contravention to allow an animal to experience distress, and in the definitions section, 1 (2) (a.1), distress is defined as including “not protected from excessive heat or cold”.

Christine Rickson, interim CEO of the BC Chicken Marketing Board, which regulates and monitors activities related to chicken production and marketing in BC, confirmed that farmers in the province reported losses of 416,146 chickens during the heat dome event. (The average weekly kill in British Columbia is 2.2 million birds.)

Rickson said farmers prepared for the heat wave by reducing flocks and sending chickens to be processed early, used cross or tunnel ventilation, foggers, cooling pads, and took additional measures like adding sprinklers and using washers to pressure to reduce barn temperatures. .

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Amanda Brittain, from the board of BC Egg Marketing, said that while the farm stables are well equipped for the summer temperatures, many were overwhelmed by the intense heat and record temperatures in the Fraser Valley that exceeded 40 ° C. .

Brittain said farmers will make adjustments based on lessons learned during the heat dome: “No one has experienced that kind of heat in the Fraser Valley and we couldn’t know what to expect. Many farmers are now looking for what worked best. “

Joe Falk, owner of Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry in Chilliwack, said he experienced a “significant loss” among his breeding flocks of ducks during the heat wave.

“When there is that kind of heat, the birds die due to heat stress or if they are ‘in lay’ they just drink, stop eating and stop laying,” he said.

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Most of their layers survived, but clutch was down to 20 percent, and it could take months for the layers to recover and return to full production.

Falk said he is upgrading the cooling systems to prepare for possible extreme heat events in the future: “Due to that event, we are changing the equipment in our new barn. We are installing a water curtain and a ventilation tunnel where many fans draw air through a water curtain. “

Unfortunately for some farmers, Falk said, older barns built in the 1970s and 1980s are extremely expensive to modernize.

Although the heat dome was unprecedented, with temperatures reaching 49.6 ° C in some parts of British Columbia, Labchuk believes more should have been done to protect farm animals.

BC SPCA, a charity that is funded primarily through donations, is responsible for enforcing animal welfare laws in the province.

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BC SPCA’s Lorie Chortyk said they did not receive an increase in complaints related to the heat dome, but added: “One of the things that BC SPCA has been advocating strongly for in this area is for increased transparency and accountability, and for industry and government to create a third-party inspection program to ensure standards of care are met. “

“Indeed, no public resources are spent on farm inspection,” Labchuk said. “The BC SPCA does not have enough resources to inspect or contact everyone in a comprehensive manner. The government does not do a proper job of overseeing the farms. Who will lose? It’s always the animals. “

The BC Farm Industry Review Board, which oversees poultry product boards, said they are aware of the heat dome-related deaths but are not investigating.

“Despite proactive and ongoing animal care practices by farmers, the excessive heat was so extreme that it resulted in a series of unfortunate bird deaths,” the review board said in an email to Postmedia News. .

Labchuk also contacted the BC Hog Marketing Commission and the BC Milk Marketing Board, but neither was able to provide animal mortality figures for the same period.

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