Putting animals on the agenda: SAFE’s 2026 election scorecard
October 8, 2026
Find out how each party’s animal welfare policies stack up for the 2026 General Election.
Animals in New Zealand are experiencing harm on a massive scale, trapped inside systems designed to protect them (and us all). See the latest investigations, public awareness campaigns and actions that accelerate progress for animals, and learn how we can challenge the systems that harm them.
Find out how each party’s animal welfare policies stack up for the 2026 General Election.
A chicken can be bred to grow so quickly that she struggles to walk and still be raised on a farm certified by a trusted animal welfare organisation. That’s what recent footage from two SPCA Certified farms shows.
Every summer in New Zealand, gentle natured animals are subjected to intense fear, distress and the risk of injury and death at rodeo events. Condemned here and internationally by veterinarians and animal welfare experts, rodeo is a brutal form of entertainment in which horses, bulls, steers, and calves are used
Most of us like to think of New Zealand as a nation of animal lovers. But what many Kiwis don’t realise is that the system designed to protect animals from harm and mistreatment is fundamentally broken. Gaps in oversight, accountability and enforcement mean the system is failing the very animals
‘Free-range’ is a term commonly used to describe farming systems where animals can have access to the outdoors. The label ‘free-range’ can create an impression of animals living freely outside, with more natural lives and greater freedom of movement.
In reality, ‘free-range’ describes aspects of an animal’s housing. It
Following a formal complaint laid by SAFE lodged over ten months ago, the Coalition Government has failed to address concerns over Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard’s oversight of animal welfare.
Corporate progress and opportunities in New Zealand’s transition away from caging hens
New Zealand’s Parliamentary Petitions Committee has recommended that the Government investigate how oversight of New Zealand’s animal welfare system could be improved.
Strategically-minded, active, and an enduring advocate for animals, Kat Macmillan shares her journey with us.
In the UK and Europe, the dairy industry is fighting to control the word ‘milk’. What does that mean for Aotearoa?
Imagine being born on Tuesday, then dead by Friday.
That might sound shocking, dystopian, unimaginable. But for nearly 40% of dairy calves born in Aotearoa, life ends within their first week. Approximately two million dairy calves are sent for processing as ‘bobby’ calves each year, with most of these
Veganism was an explosive Internet trend. Now, it’s returned to its roots as a thoughtful, ethics-based movement. And that’s a good thing.
SAFE has launched a major new campaign calling for an end to factory farming in Aotearoa, backed by a public petition and a nationwide advertising campaign exposing the reality of intensive animal farming.
Aotearoa had a chance to improve hens’ lives. Instead, we’re preserving factory farming.
SAFE is raising serious conflict of interest concerns after the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) confirmed it will retain committee member Sandra Faulkner following her election as Vice President of Federated Farmers.
On 2 April 2026, the Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill passed by a landslide majority. This means from 1 August 2026, greyhounds will no longer be forced to race for gambling profits, bringing an end to an industry responsible for decades of suffering.
The spread of bird flu, now confirmed in both Australia and New Zealand, has intensified concerns about how intensive animal farming can amplify the spread and impact of zoonotic diseases once they enter commercial flocks.
A major new commitment by the European Commission to phase out cages and crates for farmed animals including hens and pigs highlights how far New Zealand is falling behind on animal welfare.
In 2025, your support enabled SAFE to keep pushing where it matters most: exposing cruelty, challenging industry influence, and holding decision makers to account.
Before the 2023 general election, Andrew Hoggard was the head of farming lobby group Federated Farmers. Yet he now serves as the minister responsible for animal welfare – despite being deeply entangled with the very industries that profit from animal exploitation.
We’re calling on the Prime Minister to reassign
New footage from a Taranaki pig farm has revealed the grim reality of life inside a farrowing crate for mother pigs – the same cages the Government is rushing to legalise through the Animal Welfare (Regulations for Management of Pigs) Amendment Bill.
Sadly, Kiwis may not be aware that one third of hens farmed for egg production in Aotearoa are farmed in these cruel cage systems. Why? Because the cage egg industry is doing its best to hide the truth.