100 complaints over animal welfare in Hawke's Bay

Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Will Foley

More than 100 complaints were lodged about the welfare of Hawke's Bay farm animals in the past five years.

From 2010 to 2014, the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) received 60 complaints related to commercial farms in Hawke's Bay and 27 related to lifestyle blocks. The remaining complaints categorised as "other" included operations such as saleyards and transport carriers.

Three complaints resulted in official warnings and seven led to written warnings. Two owners were prosecuted.

Other complaints were dealt with by providing verbal advice, education or referrals to other agencies. Up to two outcomes could be recorded for one complaint. Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Will Foley said any more complaints than zero was too many.

"When animal welfare is at stake, ideally you don't want to see any cases reported," he said.

"I think the general public are more aware and more alert to what's going on these days and take more interest.

"It may well be that there's a lack of understanding there and [the complainant hasn't] perceived what's going on, but by no means does that mean that person should not report it."

Cases of proven neglect usually involved several factors, he said.

"Climatic events add a lot of stress to farmers. Drought, in particular, creeps up on farmers because it's a slow process of things getting worse, so they perhaps don't see it unfolding before them. General mental health can also contribute.

"Poor economic conditions or performance can lead to depression. Once farmers are in that state of mind, they might not see things in front of them that others see."

Nationwide, MPI received 2947 complaints about animal welfare between 2010 and 2014.

Commercial farms accounted for 1852 of the complaints, while lifestyle blocks accounted for 785 complaints - an over-representation of complaints, according to MPI.

MPI compliance operations manager Gary Orr said: "Last year, between MPI and the SPCA, we responded to almost 500 complaints involving lifestyle blocks."

Mr Orr believed many complaints stemmed from a lack of knowledge of basic farming practices.

Just under 100 complaints nationwide resulted in prosecutions, with thousands more resulting in verbal advice, education letters, written warnings and other "investigation outcomes".

MPI presently found about 27 per cent of complaints were unsubstantiated on inspection.

"With the increasing mobility of New Zealand's population in the pursuit of recreational activities, greater numbers of urban Kiwis are exploring the rural reaches of New Zealand.

"Unfortunately, a lot of these visitors apply their pet standards to production animals. They can be surprised to learn it is not illegal to allow sheep to give birth in the rain or that a chicken farmer doesn't have to muster his free-range chickens into the shed during a storm," Mr Orr said.