Australian Pig Campaign & Animal Welfare Strategy

Portion of QGAR Mailing list Oct 19 :
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From AL NSW:
GOVTS TO IMPLEMENT NATIONAL ANIMAL WELFARE
STRATEGY

The Federal Government has launched a national animal
welfare strategy, saying it is the first coordinated approach to
animal welfare in the world.

The strategy covers everything from production of food and fibres
to pets and wild animals, and will be implemented by state and
territory governments.

Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran says the aim is to
have clear and consistent national standards to improve animal
welfare, and educate the community.

"Thankfully we are relatively free from the more extreme animal
rights lobbies that plague other countries," he said.

"Australia, we are for the most part able to talk to each other and try to work together, even though animal welfare can spark robust discussion.

"Through the approach we've developed with various stake-holders, we are trying to reach consensus, at least a workable agreement."

The national standards will be enforced by animal welfare groups and governments, through authorised inspectors.

Dr John Barnett from the Animal Welfare Science Centre says the strategy is logical but will not stop pressure from some animal rights groups.

"Those issues, I think they'll continually arise you know. There'll be targeted campaigns by international animal welfare groups but there's always issues that people don't agree on."

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2005/s1482481.htm

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From AL NSW:

ANIMAL GROUPS STEP UP CAMPAIGN AGAINST PIG INDUSTRY AM - Saturday, 15 October, 2005
Reporter: Tim Jeanes

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Animal welfare groups will today step up a campaign against pig producers over what they say is a case
of entrenched industry cruelty.

Animals Australia, the peak body representing 35 animal welfare organisations, will release new video footage, which it says will disturb many Australians.

The group says most people simply aren't aware of how their bacon, ham and other pork products are produced.

And, as it prepares for its annual conference beginning in Hobart today, it's proposing an alternative, which it says could radically reduce animal suffering.

Tim Jeanes reports.

SUE QUARMBY: Wilbur, Wilbur!

(sound of a pig snorting)

TIM JEANES: Meet Wilbur the Pig, one of the stars of the forthcoming Paramount movie, Charlotte's Web, which was
recently filmed in Victoria.

Together with two co-stars, he's now been taken on as a pet by Tasmanian Sue Quarmby, who says he's as happy as a pig in
mud.

SUE QUARMBY: Deliriously happy pigs we've got here. Incredibly interactive with us, emotional, affectionate, intelligent, easily as intelligent as our border collies, which I never thought I'd say that before.

TIM JEANES: As it prepares for its annual conference, Animals Australia says Wilbur's life is the antithesis of 99 per cent of pigs and the group is planning to do something about it.

It will release footage provided onymously of pigs in small sow stalls at a Tasmanian piggery.

Executive Director Glenys Oogjes says it's part of a plan to put increasing pressure on Governments to outlaw a practice that is legal.

GLENYS OOGJES: They have difficulty even laying down and standing up without being impeded. People have no idea that
this is happening, that is, that pork, bacon, comes from pigs, the breeding sows that are kept in these terrible onditions.

The only time that they will see sunshine or grass is perhaps on the way to the slaughter house out of the truck.

TIM JEANES: Animal Australia will today outline how it wants free range piggeries to be developed, in much the same way that free range poultry farms are becoming a growing feature of the poultry market.

GLENYS OOGJES: We have in Australia, great areas, temperate climates, where they could have extensive piggeries and have
the sows, the boars and the young piglets outside.

And that would be, of course, at least a compassionate approach.

TIM JEANES: Representing the pig industry, Australia Pork Limited says Animals Australia needs to focus on science, not
emotions.

For example, spokesman John Lamont says the use of sow stalls promotes animal welfare by stopping aggressive mothers
from attacking each other.

JOHN LAMONT: This is the danger between looking at photographs in isolation from what are the facts.

Oftentimes, what a lot of these animal activists will do is break into piggeries in the middle of the night and photograph animals who've been isolated because they've been injured and they need to be kept away from the other sows, or also in
circumstances where they need to receive veterinary treatment.

Now, it's very analogous to a circumstance if you were to walk into a hospital in any part of Australia and take photographs of
sick people, then it looks like Australia treats people badly.

TIM JEANES: On the issue of free-range pigs, Mr Lamont says Animals Australia needs to look to practicalities.

JOHN LAMONT: There's only three to five per cent of Australia's land mass which is suitable for free range production. And the primary reason for that is, like humans, pigs suffer from sunburn and get skin cancer.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: John Lamont with Tim Jeanes.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1483065.htm

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From AL NSW:

ASK FOR FREE-RANGE PORK PRODUCTS, CONSUMERS URGED

Australians are being urged to write to politicians and supermarkets to demand free-range pork products.

Animals Australia, which represents 35 animal welfare organisations, is holding its annual conference in Hobart.

The group has released what it says is new video footage from Tasmania which was sent anonymously and shows sows kept
in cages.

It says with more than 5.7 million pigs slaughtered each year, about 95 per cent of them are kept in intensive sheds.

A spokeswoman for Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania, Yvette Watt, says consumers can help make a difference.

"Basically we're saying to them they have a huge range of power and if they let the supermarkets and other outlets know they want humanely produced food, then that's the only way we'll get real change," she said.

Animal Australia will today outline how it wants free range piggeries to be developed, in much the same way that
free-range poultry farms are becoming a growing feature of the poultry market.

Representing the pig industry, Australia Pork Limited says Animals Australia needs to focus on science, not emotions.

Spokesman John Lamont says the use of sow stalls promotes animal welfare by stopping aggressive mothers from attacking
each other.

"This is the danger of looking at photos in isolation instead of looking at the facts," he said.

"Often times, what a lot of these animal activists will do is break into piggeries in the middle of the night and photograph animals that have been injured and need to be kept away from the other sows or also in circumstances where they need to receive veterinary treatment."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...0/s1483025.htm

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