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2017: A year in review

September 9th, 2019

Thanks to your support, during the last 12 months SAFE has continued to create continued progress for animals.

Not long into 2017 we had a major win for hens when Countdown went  cage-free, and the year ended with pressure on the dairy industry with a  story that went viral. SAFE also welcomed our new CEO, Jasmijn de Boo,  and the new Head of Research and Education Professor Andrew Knight.

Watch our 2017 celebration video, and below are just some of the amazing things that we have achieved for animals:

All Major Supermarkets announce intentions to go Cage-Egg Free

As part of our cage-free campaign, Countdown became the first New  Zealand supermarket, and first major NZ retailer, to join the global  revolution to free hens from cages, announcing in March that they will phase out cage eggs from their stores nationwide.

THEN in August, after talks with SAFE, Foodstuffs, the company who  owns New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square supermarkets, also committed  to phasing out cage eggs throughout New Zealand!. 

New thought-provoking factory-farming textbook released

The latest textbook in SAFE’s ground-breaking ‘Animals and Us’ series,  Animals in Factory Farms, launched in March. 

The textbook opens the doors on factory farms, encouraging young  people to engage critically with the way farm animals are treated in  modern agriculture through four comprehensive curriculum-linked lessons,  in the areas of social studies, science, biology and English.

The Animals & Us textbook series allow students to examine and  question the treatment of animals and the series has been made available  to New Zealand secondary schools since 2007. Animals in Factory Farms  is the fifth textbook in the series.  New Dairy Campaigns highlights cruelty

Over the last two years, there has been widespread public outrage at  the brutal treatment of bobby calves exposed during SAFE and Farmwatch  investigations, with the issue attracting attention globally.

SAFE is determined that the focus should not drop from this serious  issue, launching a new dairy cruelty awareness campaign. SAFE also  released a video of a cow chasing after a trailer which went viral,  viewed millions of times and was picked up by multiple media outlets  worldwide.

SAFE Animal Squad Launches

In October SAFE launched an exciting new educational website –  SafeAnimalSquad.org.nz – and game for Kiwi kids, with the goal of  teaching compassion and kindness for animals. Hundreds of Kiwi kids are  already members of SAFE’s Animal Squad Youth Group and it is hoped that  the new website will extend the message of kindness and compassion to  reach thousands more, with the need for humane education in New Zealand  huge and urgent.

Eat Kind – SAFE’s plant-based programme

This is the second year of SAFE’s ‘Eat Kind’ programme which aims to  empower Kiwis to try plant-based eating. It’s also the inaugural year  for SAFE’s EAT KIND Awards which recognises culinary excellence in New  Zealand. The annual awards are a fun way to mark World Vegan Day and  celebrate the diversity of vegan options available in New Zealand.

Rodeo campaign continues to highlight cruelty

Early in to the new year new footage showing the cruelty of rodeo resulted in several sponsors dropping their support of rodeo. 

To coincide with the season’s start, we unveiled striking billboards and a hard-hitting video, with  confronting images depicting dogs being roped around their necks,  aiming to challenge the double-standards over animal treatment by  showing what wouldn’t be allowed by law (dog roping), compared with  animal cruelty that is still allowed (calf roping).

Ground-breaking, virtual reality, pig farm footage released

Together with Farmwatch SAFE released a brand-new investigation into  pig farming in New Zealand, using both hidden camera footage and a  ground-breaking, New Zealand-first, look at a pig farm with virtual  reality technology.

Caged Being – Social Experiment

At 10pm on 2 June 40 people said goodbye to their creature comforts  and entered a 56 square meter cage inside a disused shop in Auckland to  raise awareness of the biggest animal welfare issue of our time  – factory farming. The unique ‘Caged Being’ event aimed to bring factory  farming into the spotlight and to let Kiwis know how we can all make a  difference to make New Zealand a better place for animals. The  experiment represented the conditions that more than 100 million animals  experience every day in New Zealand farms. 

Election 2017 and animals

SAFE launched the ‘Vote for Lucy’ election campaign in August. We  erected a thought-provoking election hoarding in Auckland, with the help  of a ‘giant pig’.

The Vote for Lucy website gave a  summary of all political parties’ positions on issues impacting animals  in New Zealand. The website included a video featuring Emmett Skilton,  star of the television show The Almighty Johnsons, showing people how  they can encourage politicians to do more for animals.

With your help, we can achieve even more for animals in 2018.  One of the most effective ways you can support SAFE is by becoming a regular giver.   Every dollar goes towards our work creating change through campaigning,  providing education, undertaking research and campaigning for the  benefit of all animals.

Thank you for your support!

 

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As a charity, SAFE is reliant on the support of caring people like you to carry out our valuable work. Every gift goes towards providing education, undertaking research and campaigning for the benefit of all animals. SAFE is a registered charity in New Zealand (CC 40428). Contributions of $5 or more are tax-deductible.