Canadian animal rights group unveils provocative ad campaign

May 17, 2013

Mercy for Animals Canada launches ad campaign on public transit

An animal rights group – Mercy for Animals Canada started a national ad campaign to be displayed on public transit attempting to compare farm animals to beloved pets like cats and dogs.

The controversial ads began this week in major cities like Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Halifax, and Saskatoon. The ads will be displayed on buses, subways and light rail.

The ads will feature a puppy beside a piglet, a kitten beside a baby chick and a dog beside a cow. The say “Why love one but eat the other?” The activist group’s aim is to promote vegetarianism. The group is also making the claim that 95% of the 700 million animals raised for human consumption in Canada suffer cruelty. It is yet to be determined how the activist group came up with this figure.

A spokesperson with the Manitoba Pork Council says people can make their own choices on what to eat, noting that humans are omnivores that typically have a diet that consists of a healthy balance of grains, vegetables and meat.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.