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Home » Blog » Annabel McAleer » Everyone loves pigsWhy are David Carter and John Key playing dumb on pig farming?
What makes issues suddenly burst into public consciousness is a mystery, but certainly Mike King's piece on pig farming on TVNZ's Sunday programme has made an impact where Jamie Oliver's recent documentary and SAFE's Love Pigs campaign have not.
But I find it absolutely unbelieveable that the Minister of Agriculture was previously unaware of the use of sow crates by New Zealand pig farmers.
David Carter was quoted by the NZPA as saying: "The television images were disturbing. It is essential we find out if this intensive pig farming operation is in breach of the Animal Welfare Act."
But David Carter has already been the subject of a SAFE postcard campaign to lobby MPs. The text of the postcard reads:
I am a member of your constituency and seek your help to protect factory farmed pigs. Please use your influence to ensure that the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is upheld.
At present thousands of pregnant sows are cruelly confined in stalls and farrowing crates. These cages are so narrow the animals cannot even turn around. Sow stalls and farrowing crates do not allow pigs to express their normal behaviour as is required under the AWA. Only a minority of pig farmers in New Zealand still use sow stalls. The vast majority use alternative systems and have done so for decades. Despite the obligations of the AWA, the Minister of Agriculture, Hon David Carter still has not acted to phase out these illegal confinement systems.
Please urge Hon David Carter to uphold the principles of the AWA and phase out sow stalls and farrowing crates without undue delay. Please let me know what action you intend to take on this matter.
Back in 2001 more than 65,000 submissions were sent to the Government calling for sow stalls to be banned, according to Winston Peters in a 2004 address to the SPCA. Nearly 90% of those surveyed told pollsters that they regarded the use of stalls as unacceptable.
In 2002 the Ministry of Agriculture invited submissions on a Code of Welfare for pigs. That resulted in the Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare 2005, which introduced a ten-year phase-out of sow stalls. (Britain banned sow crates in 1999; the EU will follow in 2013.)
And according to SAFE, pig farming standards were already set to come under review this year, after sow stalls and farrowing crates were found to be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act 1999.
This has hardly been a hidden issue in recent years. If the Minister of Agriculture is truly unaware of how pigs are legally allowed to be treated when they are intensively farmed in New Zealand, he should get to grips fast with the public outrage that's been building for the past eight years.
Watch the Sunday programme here.
Here's what you can do to help:
- Learn more about the issue.
- Write to your MP. SAFE have made this super-easy with their Lobbying for Lucy e-card.
- Tell all your friends to write to their MPs, too.
- Print out copies of SAFE's Eateries Against Animal Cruelty postcard, and take them to your favourite cafes.
- Every time you go to the supermarket or butcher, ask if they stock free-farmed 'happy pork'. Keep asking until they say yes!
- Boycott all pork that isn't free range. That means choosing Freedom Farms (SPCA-approved) or Havoc Farm pork.
- Listen to Sam Tucker: pigs are clever wee cuties. Consider giving up pork, or eating lots less of it.
Tue May 19, 2009 @ 04:27 PM
