Pig Code recommendations set to condemn
pigs to further misery.

In 2006 Animals Australia launched its Codes of Cruelty campaign to highlight that so-called ‘welfare’ Codes for agricultural animals primarily exist to permit cruelty to animals and to exempt industry operators from prosecution.

The existence of these Codes is regularly used by industry bodies (such as Australian Pork Limited), government representatives and leading supermarket chains to suggest that the welfare of ‘production’ animals is protected.

But nothing could be further from the truth…

Over the past 3 years the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals – the Pig has been under review. Animals Australia, its supporters, and its member societies have been actively campaigning for current cruel practices permitted by this Code - such as the use of sow stalls, which have been banned or are being phased out in other countries - to be banned. The RSPCA has also called for sow stalls to be banned.

Despite this, if accepted the recommendations from this ‘Code’ review will allow the following cruel practices to continue:

1. The keeping of sows in stalls so small they cannot turn around for up to the entire 16 weeks of each pregnancy, for a further ten years;


2. The use of ‘farrowing crates’; again, so small that the sow cannot take more than a step forward or back and cannot turn around or properly interact with her piglets;


3. The tail-docking of piglets without any pain relief;


4. The teeth-clipping of piglets without any pain relief;

   A sow confined in a sow stall



5. The castration of male piglets without any pain relief;


6. The lack of any requirement for bedding, nesting material for sows, or manipulative materials for these curious animals;


7. No requirement for fibrous food for pregnant sows such that their hunger is chronic.

Flawed Review Process

On 20 April 2007, the Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC) - made up of State Ministers responsible for Agriculture, and chaired by Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran - will meet to vote on the above recommendations.

This entire review process has been appalling and as indelibly flawed as these resultant recommendations. What is clear is that the government has prioritized the welfare of this cruel industry rather than addressed its responsibilities to protect the welfare of animals.

In August 2006 Animals Australia submitted a 56 page document to relevant government Ministers identifying the failures of every aspect of this review and calling for the review to be aborted. Aside from the numerous ‘process’ issues what was completely unacceptable was that recommendations such as the continued use of sow stalls and farrowing crates failed to meet the requirements of the Model Code itself, which states at the outset that it must allow pigs the opportunity to display appropriate patterns of behaviour and provide a ‘husbandry system appropriate to the physical, health and behavioural needs of pigs.’

Despite overwhelming evidence that this review process has been flawed, it has been allowed to continue. The resultant recommendations are shameful.

Permitting Cruelty…

Every caring Australian should be outraged by the government’s duplicity in suggesting that this was ever a review of cruel pig industry practices. The resultant recommendations have ignored international precedents either banning or restricting the use of sow stalls. They have also ignored:

1. The recommendations of pre-eminent scientists in this field;
2. The views provided by the public during the public consultation period;
3. The world's largest producer of pigs, Smithfield Foods (US) (which produces 3 times the number of pigs as does the entire Australian pig industry), announcing it will completely phase out sow stalls within 10 years; this was in response to pressure from major customers such as McDonald's which was in turn responding to consumer pressure;
4. The largest Canadian producer of pigs, Maple Leaf Foods Inc, has announced it will completely phase out sow stalls within 10 years (for similar reasons to Smithfield);
5. Burger King (following McDonald’s' lead in the US) has just announced it will seek to obtain its pork from producers which do not confine sows in sow stalls (20% of all pork by the end of 2007, and increasing thereafter).

   Painful surgical mutilations such as teethclipping are performed on millions of piglets each year

   
   

The draft Code recommendations will allow more than one million mother pigs to suffer dreadfully over the next decade by being confined, barely able to move, in barren sow stalls. The news for their offspring is no better: more than 50 million piglets will have their teeth and tails clipped without pain relief, and the males may be castrated without pain relief.

The only reason industry operators will not be prosecuted for this terrible animal abuse is because the government permits it within the Pig ‘welfare’ Code!

Think it’s unjust?  What you can do…

Please write today to your State Agricultural Minister and to Federal Agriculture Minister McGauran appealing to them to refuse to endorse the redrafted Code of Practice; if they do, they will be endorsing animal cruelty.

Take Action!

Using our purchasing power to demand change …

With politicians once again disregarding the welfare of non-voting Australian it is time to focus on more effective routes to create change – consumer choice. Thousands of Australians have already made the Pro Pig Pledge.

Does the general community care about animal cruelty? The answer is yes. How can we be so sure? A couple of examples.. How many people have you heard say… “I had to turn the channel because I couldn’t watch it” when a program on animal suffering has gone to air… or … “I had to turn my head away when I saw that truck full of animals with limbs hanging out on the freeway as I found it so upsetting!”

Yep, we do care! The challenge is to encourage the many thousands of Australians who care about animal suffering to act, rather than turn away.

How can you help us to achieve this? Two simple steps – inform and empower.

The majority of Australians are still unaware of how pigs are ‘farmed’ in this country and the endemic cruelty that underpins the pork, bacon and ham products on supermarket shelves.

Since it was launched in 2005 Animals Australia’s SaveBabe.com campaign has reached tens of thousands of Australians – and all reached have been appalled by the way pigs are treated. Tens of thousands of people are making the Pro Pig Pledge and committing either to not buy pig products at all, or to only buy free-range.

If ever we needed proof that we can’t rely on politicians to protect the interests of farm animals it is the outcome of the review of the pig code of welfare which will allow horrendous cruelty to pigs for another ten years. Politicans care about protecting political alliances with industries – not about the welfare of non-voting Australians.

So its time to forget about seeking justice for animals through political processes and instead to focus on the powerful vote each one of us can make to vote against animal cruelty and demand change – consumer choice. Industry operators may be adept at ignoring the suffering of their animals, but diminishing profits are sure to attract their attention.

Please encourage any and everyone you come in contact with to visit SaveBabe.com. Ask us for a free Pro Pig Pledge action pack so that you can provide information to people – and above all else let people know that yes… it is within our power to change our world and theirs for the better, simply through the choices we make!!

> Take Action!

> Make the Pro Pig Pledge!