Reports
A Commissioner for Animals in New Zealand
This report has been commissioned by the New Zealand Animal Law Association (NZALA) with the generous
support of Save Animals from Exploitation (SAFE). In it, author Alison Vaughan provides a comprehensive outline
of the various regulatory systems that govern human-animal relationships, and the problems that have arisen and
persisted in that complicated network. It advances a compelling argument for reform; reform that takes the form
of a new Commissioner for Animals.
Public Opinion Snapshot 2025: Farrowing Crates and Animal Welfare in Aotearoa
Findings from a nationally representative survey of 1,000 New Zealanders conducted by Verian, September 2025.
Submissions
Submission of SAFE: Animal Welfare (Regulations for Management of Pigs) Amendment Bill
The Animal Welfare (Regulations for Management of Pigs) Amendment Bill represents one of the
most profound setbacks to Aotearoa’s animal welfare law in recent history. It seeks to re-authorise
confinement systems that the High Court ruled unlawful in 2020, amending the Animal Welfare Act
1999 to permit practices that are fundamentally incompatible with its purpose.
Do not reverse the ban on the live export of farmed animals by sea
Submission of SAFE on the petition of John Hellström.
In April 2023, New Zealand drew a line in the sand. By ending the export of farmed animals
by sea, we acknowledged a simple truth: this trade subjects animals to suffering that no
regulatory framework can ever fully prevent. The ban was not only a matter of policy, but of
principle. It was a recognition that our responsibility to animals does not end at the farm gate
or the port.