Agricultural Law Netletter - Friday, April 7, 2017 - Issue 369

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Federal Court of Appeal has reviewed the law with respect to absolute liability in relation to the provisions of the Health of Animals Regulations which make it an offense to cause undue suffering to animals being transported for undue exposure to weather. The Court concluded that although the Canadian Agricultural Review Tribunal had erred in law in finding a food processor liable for the suffering caused by a trucker who transported 7,680 hens under frigid conditions, the Tribunal's decision could nevertheless be upheld on the grounds that the food processor had prolonged the suffering of the hens by causing them to remain in a trailer in an unheated storage facility for 12 hours, while a mandatory sanitation procedures were being completed to the food processing facility. (Maple Lodge Farms Ltd. v. Canada (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), CALN/2017-041, [2017] F.C.J. No. 241, Federal Court of Appeal)