Agriculture committee  The question that I believe the former chair was referring to is this: If we ship them like we ship racehorses, could the industry be viable?

Agriculture committee  I would say that the industry would not be viable if we shipped them in the same manner we currently ship racehorses or horses for show.

Agriculture committee  I will say a few things there. One, I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Ireland. We meet with her fairly regularly. My understanding is that she is not responsible for writing the regulations from 2019 and that there were 20 years of debate prior to that. This happened in 2017.

Agriculture committee  No, that's okay. I, like Brittany, hold the CVMA in the highest regard. We sat on the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association animal welfare committee for decades and consider ourselves partners. Sadly, we were not aware of this position, which has been challenging for us. Certainly when it comes to the idea of emotion, I've met—

Agriculture committee  No. It's on the animal welfare committee of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association—

Agriculture committee  Yes. We have an ex officio seat.

Agriculture committee  No, we were not aware of what was coming today.

Agriculture committee  With regard to emotion, I think person has to bring their whole mind, body and spirit to anything they do. The veterinarians I know do that. I will make mention that animal welfare is not necessarily trained into veterinarians in vet schools, which was really interesting to me when I started 10 years ago in this role.

Agriculture committee  I have no evidence, which is a problem.

Agriculture committee  Yes. As I said in my opening statement, more than 800 million animals are slaughtered every year here in Canada. We're talking about 2,500 horses that are sent—again, in an unnatural system—overseas to be slaughtered. To me, it's a clear decision, and one that I hope Parliament will make.

Agriculture committee  No, it would not.

Agriculture committee  Certainly, we could. However, the question is whether the industry would continue. Because of the high cost, it would not be a profitable industry anymore. It would be impossible to continue the industry.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Canadians are shocked that it's going on, that we would be shipping live horses overseas for a delicacy does not align with Canadian values. I would also like to speak about my members—humane societies and SPCAs across this country, from the smallest volunteer-run rural organizations in Happy Valley-Goose Bay all the way up to the largest on the continent, the BC SPCA.

Agriculture committee  That's a big question. I'll do my best. Yes, we are the founder of Canada's codes of practice with regard to on-farm animal welfare, and my organization is a founder, one of many, that founded the National Farm Animal Care Council. I was not with the organization at the time; however, I have been very involved with the National Farm Animal Care Council, because we are one of two animal welfare organizations that sit on the National Farm Animal Care Council.

Agriculture committee  No, I don't believe there's any way they can be misconstrued with the way that sport horses are flown, as the committee has heard multiple times. What I hear often in the testimony is the conflation of that with how animals are being shipped for slaughter overseas. We heard that today too.