Media release defenceless - 1
November 15, 2010

Conscience vote may have saved animals

A conscience vote on Green Party MP Sue Kedgley’s Animal Welfare Bill may have meant good news for New Zealand’s food producing animals according to the RNZSPCA.

The Bill had the support of every party in parliament bar National and Act but was defeated after the Speaker refused to allow MPs to vote as they felt.

Its aim was to close “exceptional circumstances” loopholes that allow food producing animals to be subjected to practices not allowed under the Animal Welfare Act.

RNZSPCA national chief executive Robyn Kippenberger says the fact the bill didn’t even make it to select committee stage is “hugely disappointing”.

“We didn’t have much confidence that Parliament would pass the legislation. However, if there had been a conscience vote the result may well have been very different.

“I suppose we can at least celebrate the fact there has been any debate at all. Let’s hope it has brought a realisation to both the Members and the population at large that the way we factory farm hens and pigs is cruel.

“By sending the Bill to select committee, the Members would have had an opportunity to get the public behind them and to demonstrate that if people would pay just a little more, cruel farming practices could be stopped forever,” Ms Kippenberger says.

“Having Sue’s Bill read in the House has also raised the difficulty bar for what food producers have to say when justifying their incarceration of animals for profit. However, while we may have lost this battle, the war is nowhere near an end.”

Ms Kippenberger says the SPCA supports SAFE’s campaign to end cruelty to factory-farmed animals.

“With a substantial war-chest at its disposal courtesy of Jan Cameron, SAFE is a force to be reckoned with. We fully support their aims, especially the boycotting of products sourced from farms where animals are cruelly treated.

“The SPCA Blue Tick programme is the perfect signpost to guide consumers. Only animal food products produced in a manner that is guaranteed to be humane can carry the SPCA Blue Tick.

“So shoppers can now easily choose humanely produced goods. But there is still a long, long way to go towards good welfare for the majority of intensively farmed animals, and we’re determined to maintain the momentum to achieve this.”

To earn the right to display the Blue Tick logo, producers must meet the SPCA’s stringent welfare standards and undergo thorough auditing on a regular basis by qualified and independent inspectors.

You can find out more about the SPCA’s Blue Tick programme here http://rnzspca.org.nz/.

ENDS

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