by Sue Kedgley
On 3rd November this year, Minister of Agriculture David Carter assured NZPA that a draft of the new Pig Code of Animal Welfare would “go out for consultation in about two weeks.”
In response to a suggestion from me that the Pig Code had been delayed and wouldn’t be completed this year (as the Minister had also promised) he said “it hasn’t been delayed at all, we are expecting the draft out for consultation in a matter of weeks, which was always the process.”
So here we are five weeks later, and there’s still no sign of the draft code, despite the Minister’s promise.
My prediction is that the Minister will pull the oldest trick in the book, and release the code on 21 December, or a couple of days before Christmas, in the expectation that it will be buried in the pre-Christmas rush.
The last Pig code was released on 21 December, 2005.
The Minister also promised that the new Pig code would be completed and issued this year, but there’s absolutely no chance of that.
When the first draft of the Pig Code is finally released for consultation, just before Christmas, there will be a few months for people to make submissions, and then the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee will spend many more months finalising the code. So I doubt we will see a new Pig Code much before the end of next year.
That’s bad news for the thousands of sows who will spend their Christmas locked up in their sow crates.
The one thing consumers can do about this sorry state of affairs is to refuse to buy a Christmas ham, unless it’s been reared in a free range farm.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Sue Kedgley on Wed, December 9th, 2009
Tags: david carter, NAWAC, Pig Code
More posts by Sue Kedgley | more about Sue Kedgley
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
sue,
list of free range (pig) farms please..
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
I won’t be buying or eating a Christmas ham.
John Key also expressed his great concern over the sow-crate issue when Mike King brought it to our attention most recently. What does Key say now?
Like or Dislike:
2 
0 (+2)
Be fair. I mean, five weeks later is still “a matter of weeks”, and to frame it in the loosest possible language favouring the Minister, so would fifty-two weeks.
And as for this year, did he mean the calendar year or the financial year? And which financial year could he mean? The government one, or the one for everyone else?
In other words, I conclude that the Minister is being far from disingenuous, but rather his words are liberal enough excuse him.
Next time, get a date. Most leaders in private industry are capable enough to give a deadline for a project, I see no reason why Mr. Carter should be unable to do so.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0 (+2)
The Minister of Agriculuture is a liar, pure and simple. Last May he stated on TV that he did not know about sow stalls. I had already met him in 2005 and briefed him on the issue, together with two others. I wrote a letter to him thanking him for the meeting and enclosing a peer reviewed paper on sow stalls. “Sunday” visited me for an interview and photographed the letter, and my diary entry (though in the end they did not use the footage). The letter was later tabled by Sue Kedgley in Parliament.
The Minister then tells us in May that he has asked for the review of the code of welfare to be treated as a matter of urgency. At a meeting of the pork board he said that MAF had questions over the ethics of those who raided Kay’s factory piggery. I obtained the MAF report and there were no such questions.
The Ministers behaviour reminds me of George Bernard Shaw’s dictum; that anyone who will not hesitate to abuse animals, will certainly not hesitate to lie about it.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1 (-1)