Game Farming

Let’s leave wildlife where it belongs — in the wild! CWF has for many years fought to prevent the establishment of game farming in Canada. Game farming is the practice of owning and raising ungulates for the purpose of selling any or all of its parts.

Why are we so concerned?

By creating markets for wildlife, we are essentially making species more valuable dead than alive.

The risk of disease transmission from captive animals to wild populations is a reality.

In the early 1990s, the tuberculosis-free status of Canadian livestock came under threat when biologists discovered that the disease had infected elk and deer on game farms in Alberta.

In 1991, a tissue worm that causes paralysis and other neurological disorders threatened the health of wildlife in Canada. As a result, Agriculture Canada had to slaughter infected herds and close the border to red deer imports.

In 1996, a case of chronic wasting disease turned up in a game-farmed elk in Saskatchewan. CWD is closely related to scrapie, a disease that affects sheep and the “mad cow” disease that has infected British cattle.

Escapes from game farms are inevitable. Runaway animals introduce the risk of cross-breeding and the establishment of fertile hybrids.

The legal sale of animal parts, such as antlers, meat, and various internal organs, increases the risk that poached animals will reach markets disguised as game-farmed animals. This trade will perpetuate a belief system that encourages a demand for products derived from illegal animal parts. Therefore, wildlife poaching will increase.

Wildlife access to already meager supplies of habitat will diminish because game farms must be surrounded by 2.5-metre-high fences. Wildlife-proof fences can block or disrupt migratory routes and entangle and kill wild animals attempting to interact with captive stock.

Intensive game farming will contribute to the reduction or eradication of such predators as wolves, bears and raptors, which are seen as detrimental to livestock. Farmers are capturing free-ranging wildlife, despite assurances by government and the game-farming industry that such impoundments would not occur. Since breeding stock remains costly, fledgling game farmers are strongly tempted to capture wild animals.

The cost of game farming to taxpayers is high with very little return. The federal government has already paid millions of dollars to farmers in compensation for diseased animals that had to be eradicated. Other expenses include promotion of the industry, enforcing regulations and quarantining exotic imports.

The frivolous killing of fenced-in wildlife on so-called “shooter farms” is hardly a sport and further diminishes our perception of wildlife. Alberta currently exports live animals to hunting facilities in the United States, where shooter farms are common.

CWD Timeline in Canada

1996 – Diagnosis of CWD in game farmed elk in Saskatchewan
2000 – The first case of CWD was reported in Saskatchewan with a free-ranging mule deer
2005 – First diagnosis of CWD in four free-ranging mule deer in Alberta

Between 1997 and 2008 a total of 194 wild deer have tested positive for CWD in Saskatchewan.

Between September 2005 and January 2008, 34 wild deer in Alberta have tested positive for CWD.