Image: Pig shown inside Johnston's meat processing plant. / Animal Justice

By Alyssa Conti

MEAT PLANT SANCTIONS

Chilliwack meat plant sanctioned after B.C. government investigation

Feb 1, 2025 | 12:32 PM

CHILLIWACK — Toronto-based organization Animal Justice has shared the provincial Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s sanctions against Johnston’s Packers Ltd., a Chilliwack meat processor.

On December 3, 2024, the animal welfare group reported Johnston’s to the ministry for alleged instances of pig abuse– sending roughly 850 whistleblower video files claiming the poor use of electric prods and mistreatment from workers.

The ministry responded to the report on Monday (Jan. 27). In a document shared by Animal Justice, Johnston’s received a warning letter regarding its humane slaughter practices, as well as a Prohibition Notice for the plant’s use of electric prods and animal handling methods.

“This prohibition order is an important step, but it’s deeply troubling that it took a whistleblower to bring these horrific abuses to light,” said Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk in a news release. “It’s also concerning that the Ministry is now calling on its own meat inspection staff—who were already on-site—to increase scrutiny, raising serious questions about how these violations were allowed to happen in the first place.”

Inspectors worked with Johnston’s staff on some concern areas, such as reducing choke points, additional training on stunning techniques and increasing oversight of the slaughter process by B.C. Meat Inspection Program personnel.

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The ministry noted that most of the group’s claims of hog mistreatment were not supported, and the footage depicted “standard practices in a busy hog processing facility”. The facility also had no history of violations, non-compliance issues or internal documents related to humane treatment violations.

Johnston’s Packers has not acknowledged the sanctions publicly as of writing.

In early January, the group said the meat processor tried to take down its whistleblower footage on Vimeo, a video-hosting platform. The footage came back online shortly after.