WITHOUT a doubt, the welfare of animals should be the first priority for everyone working with
animals.
As a veterinarian I am obliged to promote a standard of care to ensure animals’ needs are met. I am also obliged to use my knowledge and skills to alleviate suffering and for the enhancement of animal welfare.
I am the first to acknowledge that there is a continuing need for improvement in the management and farming of animals.
New Zealand is a world leader in animal welfare. With the exception of rare animal welfare cases, all farmers comply with the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) Animal Welfare Codes.
In the past couple of weeks, emotionally charged comments have been flying over the welfare of farmed pigs after footage of pigs recorded in a piggery near Levin was screened on the Sunday programme.
NAWAC has defended the Code and the New Zealand Pork Industry Board has said the story was “unbalanced, misleading and alarmist”.
Agriculture Minister David Carter has asked NAWAC to push pig welfare to the top of its priority list, while Green MP Sue Kedgley expressed concern at “NAWAC’s ability to make fair and impartial recommendations”.
As societies around the world become increasingly urbanised, a gap seems to have developed between the public’s perception of what animal welfare should be and the reality. Urban populations have become separated from the realities of farming and the impact of nature.
Urban dwellers’ attitudes to the welfare of animals and the choices they make when purchasing and using food and other animal products, are dictated by their own understanding and expectations of animal welfare. They don’t understand how animals are kept and, increasingly don’t understand how food is derived from animals.
By 2050 the world population will have increased by almost 50 per cent, yet there remains only finite resources of land, water and air to produce the food required for a growing number of people.
As such, the art of balancing the provision of animal welfare and ensuring security of food supply is set to become increasingly difficult.
It is estimated that less than 10 per cent of pigs farmed in New Zealand spend more than six weeks in sow stalls. There is evidence that says sow stalls can improve animal welfare by temporarily isolating aggressive sows during early pregnancy.
Pigs are farmed intensively to help ensure a food supply that is affordable to the majority of consumers. It takes a lot of space to farm pigs free range, yet move the pigs indoors and you can farm many more.
In contrast to intensively farmed pigs, those that live outdoors, especially feral pigs, have evolved thick coats. The high meat producing animals farmed indoors are protected from climate and diseases to ensure their welfare. Sows have been kept separate to protect them from aggression. Farrowing pigs in confinement has been used to keep the piglets warm and protect them from being crushed by their mother.
In developing or reviewing the Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code, NAWAC will take into account all the available evidence. Animal welfare standards must be based on science, the science of animal welfare. NAWAC will need to consider the feasibility, practicality and economic effects of improving current practices.
But, ultimately, the committee considers good practice, and the knowledge and technologies that are available at the time.
If new research advocates against the use of dry or sow stalls in any form then the Code should be reviewed.
For now, the best step concerned citizens can take, is to purchase locally grown pork. Around 40 per cent of the pork consumed in New Zealand is imported, and there is a chance that this pork may not have been produced in as welfare-friendly systems as those in use in New Zealand.
Buy New Zealand pork and help our pork industry to fund research into best practices and find the balance between animal welfare and food supply security.
• Dr Jim Edwards was president of both the World Veterinary Association and the Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations. He was president of the New Zealand Veterinary Association for two terms from 1992 to 1994.
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