Animal Matters

Greyhound racing is facing a new scandal, following revelations made by Newshub that indicate potential neglect and mistreatment at a kennel belonging to one of the industry’s most prolific trainers. 

The ban on live export faced a small bump in the road recently, but it looks like it will still become law in due course. 

And the Government is proposing a ban on farrowing crates, following a successful court case back in 2020, bought by the New Zealand Animal Law Association and SAFE.

Make a submission on the new code of welfare for pigs and demand a ban on farrowing crates.

References

• Racing regulator inquires into condition of dogs owned by John McInerney, NZ's most prolific greyhound trainer - Newshub, 4 May 2022
• Racing regulator issued up to 300 warnings to greyhound trainers over health and welfare failures in under a year - Newshub, 5 May 2022
• Ban on live exports deadlocked at select committee, but likely to pass - NZ Herald, 19 April 2022
• Morning Rural News for 2 May 2022 - RNZ
• NZ Pork: draft welfare code could be lethal for piglets, industry - NBR, 1 May 2022

On this week's episode of Animal Matters, we chat with Abigail Penny, the UK Executive Director at Animal Equality.

Animal Equality is an international animal protection organisation, and they’re most well known for their undercover investigations. Those investigations recently fed into a BBC Panorama documentary that aired in February, which exposed the UK’s dairy industry. The documentary sparked considerable debate in the UK thanks in large part to the damning undercover footage, gathered by Animal Equality. Not only did it expose examples of cruel and illegal behaviour, but it also showcased the inherently cruel farming practices that are considered normal, industry-standard behaviour. 

• BBC Panorama documentary - "A Cow's Life: The True Cost of Milk?"
• A short edit of Animal Equality's undercover footage used in the documentary can be found on their website.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its latest report, and it’s not great. We have a lot to do. But New Zealand officials successfully lobbied against the use of plant-based terminology, which begs the question, did our officials miss the point? 

And greyhound racing is working harder than ever to improve their public appearance, to such an extent that they’re excluding New Zealand’s leading animal welfare agency from their animal welfare committee.

• Climate change: IPCC scientists say it's 'now or never' to limit warming - RNZ, 5 April 2022
• Climate change: IPCC scientist warns world 'pretty much out of time' to limit warming - RNZ, 5 April 2022
• IPCC report: Climate campaigner urges voters to push government and companies to act - RNZ, 6 April 2022
• Groundswell refuses to meet prime minister alongside other groups, as ructions surface inside agriculture faction - Stuff, 30 March 2022
• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives up on Groundswell talks after they refuse to meet with other groups present - Newshub, 1 April 2022
• NZ scrubbed ‘plant-based’ diets from climate report - Newsroom, 9 April 2022
• Greyhound industry criticised after dog euthanised - Stuff, 22 March 2022
• SPCA gone from greyhound racing welfare committee as deaths in industry continue - Stuff, 25 March 2022

Live pigs delivered to your door. That’s what some businesses are offering in the Auckland and Waikato regions. The advice these businesses are giving to kill these pigs is illegal though, and bears an airy resemblance to a British TV ad that many considered was ‘vegan propaganda’. 

And the equestrian industry has been caught up in more PR disasters, and one such situation involved one of Aotearoa’s most famous horse riders. 

• Ministry for Primary Industries investigating multiple live pig selling businesses over animal cruelty claims - Newshub, 5 March 2020. 
• 'Showing a pig with a meat cleaver is disgusting': Backlash at 'controversial' vegan TV advert in which couple receive a live pig and the weapon to kill it as a takeaway order - Daily Mail, 21 February 2022.
• Farmers slam UK's new trade deal with New Zealand - Daily Mail, 1 March 2022. 
• New Zealand trade deal critical to set welfare red line - RSPCA, 3 September 2021.
• Equestrian Sports NZ expresses disappointment at social media video of Sir Mark Todd's horse abuse - Newshub, 13 February 2022.
• MPI among those investigating horse rider’s actions - Otago Daily Times, 1 March 2022.
• Chinese SOE pushes NZ for U-turn on live export ban - Newsroom, 11 February 2022.
• Chinese companies lobby New Zealand to continue with live cattle exports - Stuff, 16 February 2022. 

Horse racing has managed to avoid much of the scrutiny that greyhound racing faced in 2021, but a string of recent incidents show that the horse racing industry isn’t without its faults either. 

And a last minute shipment from Timaru rounded out a bumper year for the live export industry, which is showing few signs of slowing down despite a ban on the horizon.

• Who won New Zealand sport in 2021? - New Zealand Herald, 30 December 2021
• Impressive Hastings-trained winner's racing career cut short - New Zealand Herald, 20 January 2022
• Champion jockey Danielle Johnson suffers broken leg, top horse Gold Watch put down after horror fall - Stuff, 1 January 2022
• German horse trainer won't be prosecuted for punching horse at Tokyo Olympics  - Newshub, 13 January 2022
• Livestock vessel set to load more than 10,000 cattle bound for China in Timaru - Stuff, 29 December 2021