Please! Have your say against pig cruelty! Submissions close on Friday 16th April!

SAFE's e-submission to Prime Minister John Key to protect pigs

Green Party call to ban sow stalls

The Open Rescue team has saved two piglets from a typical New Zealand pig farm. These piglets will now never have to endure the legalised confinement and deprivation that their mothers still endure. They will never feel the restriction of metal bars or be treated like production machines.

Instead they are now free to run through the grass, to play in hay and to dig in the earth - expressing all the natural behaviours that are denied to hundreds of thousands of pigs imprisoned on factory farms across New Zealand.

Open Rescuer John Darroch describes his part in the rescue: “Here were beautiful intelligent animals destined to a life of misery and suffering. I had seen the conditions these pigs would have been kept in and knew I had to do something to help them".

“For these two animals our rescue means the difference between a life of misery and a meaningful existence. I’m sure I will carry many of the things I saw for the rest of my life” says John.

NZ Open Rescue has saved several piglets from intensive pig farms over the last few years starting with a Mother’s Day rescue in 2008. We will continue to save animals from these ‘farms’, which are more like living nightmares, as long as legislation continues to fail these beautiful and intelligent creatures.


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View photographs from today's civil disobedience here

Watch the TV3 news coverage here

New Zealand Open Rescue member John Darroch has today began an occupation of a pig farm near Cambridge, locking himself to a silo on the farm. Darroch is taking this action to draw attention to the cruelty inherent in factory farming. Supporters with banners, placards and pig costumes are also outside the farm. Darroch is prepared to stay in his position occupying the factory farm for up to two days.  

Darroch says, “Over the past month I have been in several pig farms in the Waikato. What I have seen is both shocking and sadly typical of factory farms in New Zealand.  

“It was heartbreaking to see sows who had just given birth. They were completely unable to carry out any of their natural behaviors and could do no more than stare as we walked around. These mother pigs would never be able to build a nest for their young or nurse them as they wanted.

“Today's action is not aimed at this particular farm, which is acting lawfully. It is aimed at an industry which is inherently cruel, and a government which refuses to act.”  

New Zealand Open Rescue believes the new draft Code of Welfare for pigs is inadequate. Sows can still be confined in crates for their entire lives until 2013, limited to 20 weeks by 2013 and 10 weeks 2018. When not in crates pigs will still be unable to enjoy life outdoors - sows are typically confined in barren concrete group housing while their piglets are confined in concrete fattening pens.  

“Even in the best case scenario proposed to be implemented in 2018 sows can still be confined in crates for 10 weeks per year. The rest of their life is likely to be in barren concrete group housing which isn't much better. NAWAC's previous history in ignoring public submissions gives me little faith that the situation will improve” says Darroch.  

New Zealand Open Rescue wishes to put pressure on Minister of Agriculture David Carter to fix up the loopholes in the Animal Welfare Act which allow Codes of Welfare to be implemented that to do not meet the basic principles of the Act.  
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View the photographs from our investigations here

Tune in to TV One’s Close Up tonight at 7pm to see footage from our investigations and an interview with Hans Kriek, Campaign Director for SAFE. Watch the item here

New Zealand Open Rescue has recently conducted another series of investigations into typical New Zealand pig farms. Our cameras have revealed, yet again, shocking animal cruelty. However, the cruelty exposed is in fact standard industry practice and is legally sanctioned. None of the farms we investigated were in breach of animal welfare legislation, yet inside every farm we were witness to extreme suffering.

We documented animal after animal imprisoned in appalling conditions including mother pigs confined to farrowing crates where interaction with their piglets was severely restricted. In these systems, motherly behaviour is completely denied to sows as they are reduced to mere units of production.

NZ Open Rescue team member John Darroch describes some of the conditions he witnessed during the investigations:

“It was heartbreaking to see sows who had just given birth. They were completely unable to carry out any of their natural behaviors and could do no more than stare as we walked around. These mother pigs would never be able to build a nest for their young or nurse them as they wanted.

“In one room we found a mother that had just given birth, unable to move at all and sitting in her own shit and afterbirth. Beside her lay one dead piglet which another one was attempting to get warmth from.

“Its hard to comprehend that these pigs will spend their entire lives in intensive confinement. The only thing that will free these pigs from their misery is the slaughterhouse” says John.

It is clear that we have one law for our companion animals and another for farmed animals. While the Animal Welfare Act stipulates that animals must be able to express natural behaviours, the Code of Welfare for Pigs legalises extreme confinement and unimaginable deprivation. The existence of factory farms in our country reduces our animal welfare legislation to a regulatory facade.

It’s not too late to have your say against pig cruelty!
SAFE's e-card to protect factory farmed pigs
Green Party e-card to ban sow stalls
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Our new website! 03/14/2010
 
Well finally New Zealand Open Rescue have our own website! You'll see lots of changes here over the next few months as we add stuff and customise the site more, so keep your eyes peeled!

Last year (2009) we collaborated with band 8 Foot Sativa, Meat Free Media and Sunset Studios to make a music video for the band's song Sleepwalkers. NZ Open Rescue provided footage from our investigations of factory farms and slaughter houses for this hard-hitting video. You can watch the video here

In 2009 we took former Pork Board frontman Mike King inside a pig factory farm, enabling Mike to confront the cruel reality of this industry for the first time. Our investigation with Mike was a key element of a highly successful expose on the NZ pork industry that was showcased on TVNZ's Sunday show.

And 2010 is going to be another busy year for NZ Open Rescue! The Code of Welfare for Pigs is currently being reviewed and the Code of Welfare for Layer Hens is due for review later in the year. So it really is a big year for challenging factory farming in NZ. Watch this space!
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