News

Leading animal welfare group SAFE has slammed the suspension imposed on one of New Zealand’s greatest Olympians. Sir Mark Todd has received a four-month ban from training horses, after a video showed him hitting a horse with a tree branch. After already serving a two-month interim suspension and with the...

Animal welfare organisation SAFE spokesman Will Appelbe says greyhound racing is inherently dangerous. An animal welfare group is accusing the greyhound racing industry of not being transparent after removing a section of video that showed a dog being seriously injured. Read more

Anti-farming, anti-NZ, traitor: those are just some of the names Debra Ashton has been called. But the chief executive of SAFE admits the passion she has for animals, and for making their lives better, far outweighs any personal cost. Ashton (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi) lives in Wellington with her husband Joe...

An animal safety group is again calling for the Government to ban greyhound racing, citing the number of dogs either dying or suffering injuries. The Government won’t do that yet, but the industry only has one year to improve. Greyhound racing is a declining industry all over the world due...

Can Greyhound Racing Survive? With damning reports of injury and doping, a once-fashionable sport is officially on notice. It’s mid-morning in the rural Manawatū. Gary Fredrickson is strolling through a gravel carpark adorned with a regal-looking wooden greyhound statue, a bounding black dog in tow. Read more

Greyhound owners get together to show how lovely the breed can be off the track. (Video first published June 2019) When Racing Minister Grant Robertson revealed his review on greyhound racing in September last year, it looked like the possible end for a sport that has been long debated over...

Tricia Phillips was part of a group protesting against live cattle exports in Timaru at the weekend. Virginia Fallon is a Stuff senior writer and columnist based in Wellington. OPINION: A distinct smell of manure is emanating from one of New Zealand’s ports right now. Read more

Equestrian NZ has distanced itself from the behaviour of Olympic legend Sir Mark Todd, who has been videoed beating a horse with a stick. Sir Mark’s abuse was posted on social media platform TikTok, as he tried to coax his horse across a water obstacle, and the eight-time Olympian and...

1988: Relive the glorious time when Todd and 16-year-old Charisma took gold again. A leading animal rights organisation has said the footage of equestrian champion Sir Mark Todd whipping a horse with a stick highlights “systemic” problems facing equine sports. Read more

A group of lawyers has stepped up to ensure the rule of law prevails in two cases of animal cruelty that are both legal firsts in Aotearoa. New Zealand’s first rodeo prosecution The New Zealand Animal Law Association (NZALA) successfully took a private prosecution against Northland farmer Derek Robinson in...

The SPCA has joined calls for greyhound racing to be banned following the death of three dogs within three weeks. It comes as the Greyhound Protection League, alongside animal rights charity Save Animals From Exploitation (SAFE), has created a petition to ban the sport. Read more

A total of 199 greyhounds were euthanised in the last racing season, according to Greyhound Racing New Zealand. The organisation has released its 2020 Annual Report, which details the number of dogs euthanised either after being injured during races, or for undisclosed reasons. Read more

Nearly 200,000 chickens died at D B Chicks near Auckland’s Helensville on November 29, 2019. (File photo) An investigation into a mass chicken death incident remaining incomplete a year on is “inexcusable”, an animal welfare organisation says. About 190,000 chickens died at D B Chicks near Helensville, northwest of Auckland,...

The New Zealand vegan community has thrown its enthusiastic support behind The AM Show host Duncan Garner following his announcing he’s going plant-based for a year. In July, Garner promised he would turn vegan for a year if Labour polled high enough to govern alone. Read more