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Caged pigs at a pork farm in Levin - Source: ONE News -
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Pig farmers are holding a gun to the head of Agriculture Minister David Carter to delay the release of a new pig code, says Green Party animal welfare spokeswoman Sue Kedgley.
Carter's National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) announced its review of the new welfare code for pigs will be delayed because the Pork Industry Board threatened legal action if it released a draft code for public consultation.
The minister promised that the code would be released before the year's end, but had not kept his promise, said Kedgley.
The board should not have been shown the code before it was released, she said.
The industry was now using unprecedented stand-over tactics to delay the reform of inhumane pig-farming practices.
"The minister should not capitulate to the industry's tactics," Kedgley said.
The committee has proposed speeding up by three years a restriction on the use of dry stalls - in which sows are closely confined for four weeks - so that it takes effect from December 2012.
Under the existing 2005 pig code the amount of time a sow can be kept in a dry stall will only be reduced to four weeks after mating from 2015.
Carter has previously said he thought that lead-in time was too long.
But the committee said yesterday the pig industry does not want a further proposal to ban the use of sow stalls at a date beyond 2012.
"The industry has so far indicated that it is strongly opposed to any future ban," said the committee chairman, John Hellstrom.
Carter told a told a pork industry conference in Christchurch earlier this year that farmers had not done well enough to clean up their industry.
The minister's comment followed TV broadcast of video taken by animal rights protesters during a break-in at a Levin piggery.
Carter said at the time that from Prime Minister John Key down, most of New Zealand was not comfortable with the conditions shown in the footage.
The minister asked for his committee to give the code priority in light of the concerns about use of dry sow stalls and farrowing crates, and said in early November that a new code would go out for consultation in about two weeks.
Yesterday he was disappointed and said it was frustrating to have new delay days before the draft code was to be released.
But the committee should protect itself from threatened
litigation and the best course of action is for it to consult
further with the Pork Industry Board before releasing the draft for
public consultation, he said.
The committee wanted to ensure its processes were as robust as
possible, so will be further consulting with the pig industry and
other affected parties before releasing the draft code.
The committee is now aiming to begin public consultation some time early in 2010.
