‘Pigs are great. Ban the crate.’ Calls on Labour to uphold election promise

Today a live pig, Princess Buttercup, joined the rally on Parliament steps, representing the 16,000 mother pigs being confined in so called ‘farrowing crates’. Buttercup was joined by veterinarian Rosalind Holland, Green MP Gareth Hughes and other caring New Zealanders, all pushing Labour to uphold its election promise and ban farrowing crates.

“We are at Parliament to be a voice for those who can’t speak out for themselves; for the thousands of mother pigs who are imprisoned for weeks on end in crates so small they can’t even turn around,” says head of campaigns Marianne Macdonald. “Without material to build a nest for their babies, these mothers’ natural instincts are severely frustrated. All they can do is scrape their noses across the hard, bare floor in a futile attempt to create a nest. This is no way to treat a mother.”

Earlier this month footage was released of a farm in Timaru, with pigs in farrowing crates so small that many of the mothers struggled to lie down, with their heads wedged under feeding troughs and the bars pressing into their sides.

“No animal should be confined. The denial of any form of natural stimulation or enrichment for pigs in farrowing crates is particularly cruel. These are highly intelligent and social animals, but the pig industry is clearly OK with putting them through hell just for the sake of profit. This has to stop!”

At the rally, we told the Government that we can’t trust the pig industry to stop the suffering of pigs, so it’s up to them to ban farrowing crates. Labour’s election policy was to ban farrowing crates our supporters called ‘Pigs are great. Ban the crate’ as they rallied the Government to help pigs in New Zealand.

Take action

• Call on the Government to ban farrowing crates.
• Join the call asking for an independent Commission for Animal Welfare.