The Ministry for Primary Industries is investigating a Taranaki pig farm after footage was released of dead piglets piled in a bin and a sow with a large sore in a farrowing crate.
The Ministry’s regional animal welfare manager, Gray Harrison, told 1News inspectors were carrying out follow-up visits to the farm after finding “minor animal welfare issues” during an initial visit.
The ministry refused to disclose what the animal welfare issues were, saying the “matter is subject to an ongoing investigation”.
The animal rights organisation SAFE laid the complaint after receiving the footage from activists belonging to Grassroots Campaigns Aotearoa.
SAFE chief executive Debra Ashton said the footage showed the “cruel” reality of life for pigs kept in farrowing crates – used by some pig farmers to stop piglets being crushed by their mothers.
“We’ve seen one pig with pressure sores and that’s consistent with being constrained in a really tight crate, the other issue has been a lack of fresh drinking water, we’ve seen dead piglets in a bin – quite a number of dead piglets in that bin which shows that there’s still a lot of death of piglets in farrowing crate systems.”
Ashton said farrowing crates were incredibly cruel as the sows couldn’t mother their piglets as they would naturally want to do.
“In that footage what we’re seeing is mother pigs confined in metal crates, they can’t move around freely. They can barely take one step forwards or one step backwards and they certainly can’t turn around.”
NZ Pork chief executive Brent Kleiss briefly viewed the footage and said he wasn’t immediately worried.
“I haven’t looked at it in detail. From what I have seen, there is nothing there that gives me immediate cause for concern.”
Kleiss was concerned however, about animal rights activists gaining access to the farm.
“What’s really worrisome here is activists breaking into farms and causing real distress to pigs in the middle of the night. This is the maternity ward for our sows… plus it’s dangerous,” he told 1News.
The footage emerged as the Government pressed on with a law change that would allow pig farmers to continue using farrowing crates indefinitely – although the maximum period they could keep pigs in the crates would reduce from 33 days to seven in 2035.
Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard said farrowing crates were a confronting issue for many New Zealanders.
“That’s why we’re minimising the amount of time they spend in them to maximise piglet survivability,” Hoggard said.
Green Party animal welfare spokesperson Steve Abel said: “It’s despicable that the Government is locking mother pigs into 10 more years of this disgusting treatment.”
Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said her party would vote against the law change and she accused the Government of “dropping the ball” on pig welfare.
Kleiss said NZ Pork supported the Government’s moves and added it was vitally important to protect piglets from the sows in the first few days.
MPI said it would keep 1News updated with the investigation into the Taranaki pig farm.