Legal action threatened over pig welfare code

The Pork Industry Board is threatening legal action if a new code of welfare for pigs is released.

Agriculture Minister David Carter said a draft code was due to be released within days by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) and it was frustrating that the board threatened legal action unless it was involved in further consultation.

He agreed that NAWAC should protect itself from litigation, but both parties needed to work out a way to release a draft code urgently.

The Green Party animal welfare spokeswoman Sue Kedgley labeled the Pork board "pig headed" and said the board was holding a gun to Carter's head.

"The Minister promised that the code would be out for the public to have their say before the year's end. The Minister has not kept his promise," said Kedgley.

She said the Pork board should not have been shown the draft code before the public.

"This nonsense has to stop and I call on the Minister not to cave into the Pork Industry Board and to release the draft code for consultation immediately," Kedgley said.

Carter asked for the review after the pork industry came under the spotlight following animal rights organisation Open Rescue escorting comedian Mike King around a Horowhenua intensive pig farm belonging to former New Zealand Pork Industry Board chairman Colin Kay.

King, a long-standing front man for a campaign advertising pork, said some pigs were unable to move and obviously in distress, chewing at the cage bars and frothing at the mouth.

However a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry investigator found animal welfare laws were not broken at the well managed piggery.

Carter said at the time animal welfare concerns mattered and affected sales.

The current code was written and under it the amount of time a sow can be kept in a dry sow stall will be reduced to four weeks after mating from 2015 and Carter has indicated he believes this is too far away.

NZ HERALD/NZPA