Members of the National Farm Animal Care Council's Pig Code Development Committee met last month and will meet again this fall to discuss comments received on a proposed updated Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs in Canada during its 60-day public comment period.

National Farm Animal Care Council general manager, Jackie Wepruk, says the committee's first challenge is sorting through the vast amount of information received as it works toward reaching consensus for a final code.

Jackie Wepruk - National Farm Animal Care Council:

The sheer volume of submissions along with the breadth of perspectives offered during the public comment period was tremendous.

We had over 47 hundred submissions which represented 32,340 individual comments that were received on this draft code.

Submissions came from across Canada, the United States and in fact around the world.

We had producers, processors, veterinarians, animal welfare advocates, the general public and many others that contributed constructive input that the pig code development committee is now considering.

Certainly the response has been tremendous and far exceeds what we received during any other public comment period for the other codes to date.

The code development committee, being that it is committed to ensuring that the range of views is given fair consideration, worked towards identifying the steps in a process to deal with the different sections of the code and bridge between the differences toward an outcome that would be positive for all involved.

The Pig Code Development Committee will reconvene in the fall.

Ms Wepruk says members of the committee remain committed to reaching consensus on a final code.