News

Today a live pig, Princess Buttercup, joined the rally on Parliament steps, representing the 16,000 mother pigs being confined in so called ‘farrowing crates’. Buttercup was joined by veterinarian Rosalind Holland, Green MP Gareth Hughes and other caring New Zealanders, all pushing Labour to uphold its election promise and ban...

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has, yet again, let animals down by giving a green-light to the Timaru pig farm exposed last week for breaking the law. Footage obtained by Farmwatch volunteer investigators, which caused outrage nationwide, shows that the farm was keeping pigs in illegal sow stalls – banned...

SAFE is outraged to learn that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has, yet again, let animals down by giving a green-light to the Timaru pig farm exposed last week for breaking the law. Footage obtained by Farmwatch volunteer investigators shows that the farm was keeping pigs in illegal sow...

A new nationwide poll conducted by Horizon Research has shown that just over three in four New Zealanders felt that the statement, “The use of farrowing crates can cause suffering to sows and it is not worth causing this suffering when there are alternative systems,” was closest to their own views...

Shocking new footage has been released by SAFE showing pregnant pigs confined in sow stalls. The use of these metal cages has been banned since 2015. “Contrary to claims made today by NZ Pork, we have evidence that these cages were used as ‘sow stalls’, rather than so-called ‘mating stalls,” says...

Figures released by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) today show an increase in the numbers of animals suffering in experiments, with over a quarter of a million animals used in 2016. Over 8500 of the animals, mostly rodents and rabbits, were used in extremely painful experiments. SAFE chief executive...

This week in the house, Green Party MP Gareth Hughes asked the Associate Minister of Agriculture Hon Meka Whaitiri what the Ministry is doing to help protect animals. This comes after an exposé on a Northland farm revealed the failure of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) when it comes to animal...

Impossible Burgergate is currently happening in little ole  Aotearoa and it’s dividing the country. One might ask how Air New  Zealand’s announcement that they will be serving the Impossible Burger  on some of their LAX flights has caused such a commotion? Not me. It’s  easy to see what is happening...

Fonterra and DairyNZ have today been contacted by SAFE asking them to urgently put in place a protection scheme for farm cruelty whistleblowers. A whistleblower protection programme would encourage people to come forward with legitimate complaints of cruelty and law-breaking, and make it easy for them to do so. We...

Associate Minister of Agriculture Meka Whaitiri has great hopes for the future of animal welfare. On Friday she released her Framework for Action on Animal Welfare. It was published after SAFE and Farmwatch’s dairy exposé last week. The Framework focuses on four areas: Independent Voice, Transparency, Strengthening Codes and Capacity Building. While...

New footage shows a pit of bodies on the Northland dairy farm at the centre of last week’s bashing exposé. It is sadly commonplace for farms to have so-called ‘offal pits’ containing the bodies of animals that have been killed or have died. We believe the pit was not examined by...

After disturbing footage of animal abuse on a Northland dairy farm was released yesterday, we are demanding that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) be stripped of its animal welfare responsibilities and an independent Animal Welfare Ministry be set up. “The Ministry needs to explain why they failed to act...

Undercover cameras have captured a dairy farmer violently, and repeatedly, hitting cows with various weapons including a steel pipe. SAFE says this case highlights the serious failings of New Zealand’s animal welfare enforcement since the perpetrator was previously investigated by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) in 2017. Farmwatch investigators...

Undercover cameras have captured a dairy farmer violently, and repeatedly, hitting cows with various weapons including a steel pipe. SAFE says this case highlights the serious failings of New Zealand’s animal welfare enforcement since the perpetrator was previously investigated by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) in 2017. Farmwatch investigators gathered...