‘PigScare’ website launched as spoof of bogus NZPork label (2017 Update)

Following outrage after the release of new  footage from inside a New Zealand pig farm, and criticism of the pig  industry by the Commerce Commission, SAFE has published a spoof website  about NZPork’s misleading marketing label ‘PigCare’. The alternative  website, called PigScare, shows the true face of pig farming and pigs ‘born and exploited’ in New Zealand.

PigCare was launched by NZPork in 2010 and promoted as a seal of  approval of high animal welfare. However, it does not require farmers to  do any more than meet the minimum standards of the pig welfare code,  allowing pigs to be kept in factory farming systems.

Using images taken inside New Zealand pig farms, the website  highlights the contrast between what NZPork’s PigCare website portrays  and what animal welfare investigators typically find on New Zealand pig  farms. The images of happy pigs that the PigCare website uses present a  misleading picture of pig farming, so we have re-written the website to  expose how pigs are really treated.

“NZPork is taking advantage of the trend for ethical labelling, and  attempting to dupe New Zealanders into buying meat from animals farmed  in cruel conditions that horrify caring people,” says SAFE campaigns  director Mandy Carter. “Mother pigs at PigCare_accredited farms can be  confined in farrowing crates, where they cannot even turn around and can  only lie down with difficulty. Piglets, once removed from their mother,  are crammed into concrete pens until taken for slaughter. It is  unacceptable that NZPork is trying to fool New Zealanders into buying  into their cruelty.”

“The pig industry say they are protecting piglets by using farrowing  crates, but alternative systems do exist, and are already used by 30% of  New Zealand pig farmers,” says Andrew Knight, SAFE’s veterinary  Professor of Animal Welfare. “The near-total lack of stimulation in  farrowing crates results in unremitting weeks of boredom and frustration  for the sow. It is difficult to imagine a less humane way to treat such  a highly intelligent, social and sensitive animal.”

The controversy around PigCare was also featured on Seven Sharp.

Take Action

• Urge the government to ban farrowing crates
• Watch and share the latest investigation from inside a New Zealand pig farm.