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Colin Kay, pig farmer - Source: ONE News -
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Animal advocacy group, Save Animals From Exploitation, have named Fielding farmer Colin Kay, as the man at the centre of the crate farming row.
The group's spokesman, Hans Kriek, says Kay is a leading pig industry representative and a former director of the Pork Industry Board.
Kriek says Kay lives in Fielding but the farm under scrutiny is in Levin.
He has seriously into pig production since 1985.
Between 1985 and about 2000 Kay developed his own farm and bought two others. As businesses they were becoming marginal, and there was overcapacity on one farm and undercapacity on the others, so in 2002 he joined with another pig farmer and they rationalised five sites into one viable stand-alone business that he manages.
By 2004, Kay owned and/or managed five sites involving a total of 900 breeding sows.
The herd of 900 sows produces close to 20,000 pigs per year.
SAFE says despite public outrage the farmer is unlikely to be
breaking the law, and the piggery is typical of sow stall
operations
TVNZ's Sunday
programme aired a story in which pigs were shown to live in
terrible living conditions, causing public outrage and prompting a
government investigation.
SAFE says they has passed on the name to the Minister of
Agriculture for the ministry to investigate.
Earlier on Monday, SAFE revealed that the farmer was "no rogue farmer."
"He owns several intensive piggeries worth an estimated $4m. This farm has previously been investigated by MAF, who found nothing in breach of the law. The farm is disgusting but appears to be operating within the law, so we doubt if MAF will find anything different this time."
SAFE say they are surprised to hear comments from the chairman of the New Zealand Pork Industry Board denying ever seeing similar conditions on other intensive pig farms with sow stalls.
"I have not been on a farm that looks anything like that. We are
horrified as well. We support the minister in investigating that
farm," chairman of the NZ Pork Board, Chris Trengrove told Close Up
on Monday.
MAF will be investigating the farm in question on Tuesday.
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentChrisNoaro said on 2010-07-24 @ 20:18 NZDT: Report abusive post
People need to realise that pigs will continue to be abused like this until we stop eating them. Farming and the meat indutry need to keep costs down to stay competitive so the interests of animals will always be low on the list. Also on the subject of free range - KILLING SOMETHING ISN'T TREATING IT NICELY.
trudiu said on 2010-07-24 @ 18:06 NZDT: Report abusive post
Well done again to Close up, and SAFE. Great to see this back in the spotlight. The biggest thing people can do to help these pigs is go vegan.
Freeranger said on 2010-07-24 @ 13:03 NZDT: Report abusive post
only to be replaced on the supermarket shelves by substandard imports
Freeranger said on 2010-07-24 @ 13:01 NZDT: Report abusive post
Hi,whilst I do not approve of the cruelty, I have a problem with Safe condemning all farmers.In fact it is the outdoor piggeries that are feeling it the hardest when demand goes down. Most outdoor pork producers have higher costs and getter mortality but get the same price as indoor guys which is set by what processors can import from overseas, which is garanteed to be from stalls. So lets support kiwi farmers try to improve instead of running the outdoor piggeries out of business.
whiteheron said on 2010-07-24 @ 12:26 NZDT: Report abusive post
Come on!! This is supposed to be NZ and this is not the NZ way of farming disgusting we should boycott all commercial pork products for 6 months and go back to buying from the local butcher who buys from local farms that have a good working ethic. Lets face it there are good healthy pig farms out there and scenes like this destroy their reputation as well.