(Ai image above used for illustrative purposes only)
Imagine an entire barn of chickens, terrified, panicking, and struggling for air. That’s exactly what happened in October 2022 when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) brought a U.S. based company onto a private Canadian farm (possibly in North Lancaster, Ontario) to test a nitrogen foam killing method designed to suffocate birds quickly. The goal, they said, was efficiency. The result was chaos and suffering. According to internal CFIA documents the foam failed. Instead of a quick death the birds stampeded in terror, pressed against the walls, desperate to escape.
After the foam failed nearly the entire flock had to be killed by hand. Many birds were left gasping and struggling before death. The company running the test admitted they had never attempted a mass kill at a full scale poultry facility before. Even the CFIA acknowledged the failure. Scott Rattray, associate vice president of operations, called it a “valuable exercise” that showed “some promise,” but admitted that “because it didn’t meet our animal welfare standards it wasn’t something that we adopted.”
Was the CFIA’s decision to drop nitrogen foam driven by concern for animal welfare, or was it abandoned only because it proved ineffective? They knew from the outset that the foam would kill by poisoning and suffocation. If that met their own definition of humane treatment, then their animal-welfare bar is set shockingly low.
The decision to conduct an experimental killing method on living animals at a private farm shows a profound disregard for their lives. Every bird in that barn endured terror and prolonged suffering. This foam trial reflects a larger system of mass culling supported by the Canadian government, where millions of birds have been killed through carbon dioxide gassing, manual neck breaking, captive bolt devices, and other methods, sometimes by contractors with known animal-welfare violations. The foam experiment makes one thing clear: efficiency, scale, and bureaucratic convenience were prioritized, and animal welfare was treated as an afterthought.
The experiment also exposes the working conditions of the workers tasked with doing this killing. To perform these acts, they must suppress empathy, compartmentalize horror, and finish off birds that are panicking, suffocating, or still alive. It also raises uncomfortable questions: What kind of person chooses this type of job? What draws someone to work in such an environment, and are they capable of genuine empathy? Do they care about animals, and can they be trusted to make ethical decisions about animal welfare?
These were real birds with lives, instincts, and the capacity to feel fear, subjected to terror and slow death. The CFIA foam experiment is proof that convenience was prioritized over empathy, leaving countless animals to endure terror and death.
For shame CFIA! Have you done anything right lately? Stop killing all the animals, do proper testing, get rid of your “stamped out” policy.
My MP also feels the same way and is working to have the CFIA regulations amended.
Facts matter. Although disturbing, that foam was used in 2004. Who was primeminister then? Actually it doesn’t matter since they do not dictate what CIFA does. The USA urged Canada to use the foam and so they did in 2004. Then in 2022 they used nitrogen foam. Since both times ended in failure they refused to do so again. They use nitrogen gas instead. The foam scares the chickens but they are knocked out immediately. It looks worse than it is, and it is commonly used in the USA. I prefer to not eat animals.
I am beyond words and horrified to see what the CFIA has done to so many animals. Torture doesn’t even come close. It is heart breaking and beyond fathomable to think that an organization that is suppose to look after our “food” partakes in the torture and killing of innocent healthy animals. This is not the Canada I thought I lived in,
We have to change policies , I was told when food was cooked properly , it did t even matter if they had the flue , whey just kill them all and waste the food , …..except …. He who controls the food , controls the people !!!!!!!!
What the hell is wrong with you people. The horror stories of your actions are frightening and heartbreaking to the point our household will not be eating these poor farm animals anymore.
You seriously need to stop these actions and be put in jail.
The CFIA needs to be held accountable by the law for the abomination that is their organization…let get off torturing animals to death…sickening
This is unbelievable. The CFIA are Barbaric Killers.
I feel deeply sad and disappointed when I watch and hear about the suffering of birds.
Robyn Grant
How do we force the government to remove the CFIA completely as a department and disband all CFIA employees. Canadians being victimized by an unelected group of elites at the WHO is insane. Bring all these decisions back under only Canadian rules.
CFIA actions are against the divine laws of nature.
There is No science in slaughtering survivors, all that can create is extinction.
This is nothing more than an attempt to destroy the food supply.
I don’t know how anyone could bring themselves to work for such an establishment, and be able to live with themselves.
I am so sorry this is happening to EVERYONE.
This is extremely disturbing! No compassion, no empathy, not humane, definitely barbaric , inexcusable to cause that much mental fear and stress to any living thing! How would they like to get first hand experience in being foamed? There is no way that this can be considered acceptable. You must be psychologically unstable to the point of being a psychopath in order to do something like that to an animal! May God have mercy on all of us if we don’t force this culling behavior to stop.
Govt overreach and acting above the law has been moving at an accelerated pace since 2020. Shame on the CFRA. This govt should be removed and investigated for breaking multiple laws and corruption on a massive scale.
This is absolutely despicable on the behalf of the CFIA!!! These are sentient Beings and need to be treated as such!!! For the people who are participating in these horrific behaviours, how do you live with yourselves? Are you completely disconnected from your soul?
All I see from the CFIA is cruelty. Animals were put on this Earth to be humanely treated like humans. Are you people even human !!!! What really broke me was the ostriches in B.C, I suffer everyday with PTSD along with many others world wide. Countries are watching you. I am glad the CFIA’S ways are exposed, never in my lifetime I thought their would be Canadians who have lost their soul and empathy. What in the hell has happened to you heartless people. Test every animal or bird, quarantine, re-test and not with fake PCR tests that even the maker of them say they are not reliable. We will not stop fighting for animals to be humanely culled so don’t think we will let up on you, were only getting started. Get your act together and maybe put some farmers in your CFIA who understand animals. At least they humanely kill an animal when needed. I am just horrified.
The CFIA needs to be disbanded and held accountable for their negligent actions and continued brutality and lack of compassion towards animals.
Criminals. We will NEVER respect them for their actionsz
Eat shit CFIA
It’s time for the CFIA to be dismantled, or at the very least it needs to be accountable to a group outside of itself. This is sick, demented and completely inhumane. There are clearly no ethics left in this organization. Time to go!
The CFIA needs to be disbanded and brought up on charges for animal cruelty now!!!
Such a corrupt and evil organization, the CFIA. They are monsters and I’m devastated after what they did to the ostriches in Edgewood. It’s exposed how truly evil they are and how they are killing all animals in such cruel and inhumane ways. These poor chickens. They need to be held accountable.
This is horrible and makes me sick. In my opinion it’s animal cruelty. What the heck is going on in Canada?
I can’t wrap my head around the CFIAs ability to be so cruel. It is totally evil to destroy perfectly healthy animals that survived an illness. It’s the destruction of antibodies that could protect the next generation.
Our government and legal systems operate on fear. They are undoubtedly desensitized to the negative impact their beliefs and actions have on the rest of the world. This is an absolute horrific display as was the show they orchestrated at Universal Ostrich Farms. How can anyone condone and support such horrific actions, unless it is an intentional psyop to further power and control. They should be arrested and become victims of their own torturous system, but who will arrest them? They are all in it together! And they are becoming more and more blatant about it! It is designed and done on purposed. We have to find a way to end this sadistic control, we HAVE TO or we are doomed!
Psychopathy is clearly the guiding characteristic in hiring, training, and managing these organizations. As a society, we’ve known for generations that a person who experiences no discomfort at the suffering of animals has an elevated probability of harming fellow humans. This was borne out in the ostrich kill just over a month ago. The CFIA agents, RCMP, and hired gunmen seemed to enjoy the power they wielded over an ordinary Canadian family, the trauma they caused both the animals and the family, and their untouchable status due to the overall corruption and lack of accountability at every level of government in Canada. Instead of being investigated, reprimanded, and fired – as a start – for their part in this sickening operation – which they had a year to think about before carrying it out – these people were rewarded by the prime minister cracking a joke about having to bother with ostriches in his first year in office. We literally are being governed by psychopaths. They enjoy, or at least aren’t bothered by, torturing other living beings. There is clearly nothing that can make them believe they’re doing wrong. They simply need to be removed from their jobs.
I couldn’t even read the entire article. Just the thought of smothering animals makes me sick. The fact that this was even considered by the CFIA shows a complete lack of judgement or compassion for animals. How can we have leaders in this area that show such fundamental deficits? This goes to even higher leaders that have put these other people in place. This is a systemic problem in the CFIA that needs to be eradicated.