News

Twenty-four veterinarians, animal welfare authorities, and law experts signed an open letter supporting SAFE’s demands that the Labour-led Government upholds its pre-election promise to ban the cruellest aspects of rodeo. The open letter published in the New Zealand Herald on January 29, 2019, urges the Government to ban the use...

We, the undersigned, urge the Labour-led Government to uphold Labour’s pre-election promise to ban the use of flank straps, calves under 12 months of age, electric prods, and rope burning at rodeo events.  The signatories below represent a broad range of expertise in veterinary medicine, animal behaviour, animal welfare, and...

SAFE has reiterated its demand for the New Zealand Government to ban all live exports, following calls in the European Union to clamp down on cruel live animal exports. On January 25 2019, the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee called for a ban on live animal exports that don’t meet the...

The New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society has revealed that cruel and scientifically flawed “Forced Swim Tests” are being conducted on animals in New Zealand, calling the practice “appalling”. NZAVS learned in January 2019 that researchers at Victoria University and the University of Otago conducted Forced Swim Tests, where mice or rats...

SAFE is disgusted by the behaviour towards anti-rodeo activists at the Mid Northern Rodeo on January 12 2019. Activists at the 2019 Mid Northern Rodeo in Whangarei held a peaceful protest outside the event, while others bought tickets to enter the event to record footage of the animals being abused....

New information given to SAFE in January 2019 revealed a second animal was killed at the Gisborne Rodeo in December 2018, showing a lack of transparency around the animal cruelty in the rodeo community. A source from the rodeo community, who wishes to remain anonymous, informed SAFE that a horse...

The peak of the rodeo season this summer saw another innocent life taken at the Gisborne Rodeo. Despite continued calls to end rodeo in New Zealand, these barbaric displays of human dominance over animals continue. A bull was shot at the Gisborne Rodeo on December 27 after dislocating part of...

SAFE is calling on the Government to prioritise funding for research into humane alternatives to 1080. The poison has been used in New Zealand since 1954 to control populations of certain animals. The use of 1080 to control animal populations in New Zealand falls under the Animal Welfare Act 1999,...

Thank you from the whole team at SAFE! Thank you for your support for New Zealand’s animals this year. Together we are a strong force for those who cannot speak for themselves. Without a doubt SAFE’s campaign to ban cruel farrowing crates has had a huge impact in 2018 and...

Approximately 50,000 chickens have been killed in a fire at a West Auckland poultry farm last night. The Stoney Creek factory farm, in Opanuku Rd, Henderson, supplies Tegel. SAFE Head of Campaigns, Marianne Macdonald, is appalled that these birds have been burned to death and says an urgent review of...

SAFE is demanding an end to greyhound racing cruelty, amid new figures that show the industry killed 353 unwanted dogs during the last season. Greyhound Racing New Zealand released its 2018 Annual Report on Monday, December 10 2018, which illustrates that 353 dogs were euthanised after the industry’s failure to rehome...

Death comes to us all, and the most we can hope for (to quote Kenny Rogers) is to die in our sleep. I’d like to think that we can raise our expectations a little higher than that. Personally, I would like to have a life worth living and dying for....

SAFE is demanding the chicken meat industry stops misleading people, after Consumer NZ calls out Tegel, Ingham and Pams chicken for their misleading “cage-free” labelling on chicken meat products. Consumer protection watchdog Consumer NZ announced the winners of its 2018 ‘Bad Taste’ Food Awards on December 8. Tegel, Ingham and...

SAFE has demanded urgent strengthening of the Protected Disclosures Act in its submission to the State Services Commission, to protect whistleblowers who report animal neglect, cruelty and law-breaking. This follows the animal cruelty charges laid earlier this week against the Northland dairy farmer who was exposed by a whistleblower. A...