By SIMON COLLINS
The SPCA is being roasted by Auckland's Pacific Island community for comments about backyard killing of pigs.
Pacific leaders took exception to a claim by Auckland SPCA executive director Bob Kerridge in the journal Animals' Voice that there is an "increasingly widespread practice of clubbing pigs and in many
cases skewering them with metal from end to end and putting them, still alive, on a fire."
Mr Kerridge conceded yesterday that roasting pigs alive was "not something that is widespread," and admitted he was talking about an incident some years ago.
But his comments outraged the Rev Tavake Tupou and another Tongan, Melino Maka, who co-founded a whole-pig meat business with ex-All Blacks Michael Jones and Olo Brown specially to reduce backyard slaughter.
Mr Tupou said pigs were always killed first, cleaned and dressed before roasting. "You can't do that to a pig if it's still alive."
The manager of Radio 531 PI, Sefita Haouli, said Mr Kerridge's comments were "about 10 years late ... We have made it our business for nearly six years to educate our people not to go to the farm gates for their animals."
Mr Maka said his former business, Pacific Choice, sold up to 2000 whole pigs a year.
"Mad Butcher" Peter Leitch said he sold about 3000 whole pigs a year, and the manager of the Aussie Butcher in Mangere, Darcy Peauafi, estimated that backyard killing had halved in the past decade.
However, Colin Fry, of Mangere's Whole Body Meats, said he knew seven piggeries that each sold around 100 live pigs a week for backyard slaughtering.
