Aus: Welfare MoU overshadowed by TV cruelty

24-11-2009 | Home | News

Footage on Australian TV last night obtained by Animals Australia showed what they describe as “the cruel conditions endured by breeding pigs in factory farms in Australia”.

The footage, obtained illegally, showed a commercial piggery’s sow stalls, which Australian Pork Ltd chief executive Andrew Spencer agreed was “filthy” but was not indicative of how the industry operated. Spencer defended the use of sow stalls as a means of protecting sows from their naturally aggressive behaviour towards each other.

However, Animals Australia executive director, Glenys Oogjes, said the pig industry had made Australian consumers complicit in animal cruelty without their knowledge or permission. “Politicians and pig producers may think it acceptable to treat animals this way, but an informed community will not,” she said.

The footage comes at the same time as the Australian federal government aims to improve live export animal welfare. Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with his Bahraini counterpart, Dr Juma Ahmed Al Kaabi, at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) World Food Summit in Rome.

The MoU with Bahrain sets out arrangements for live export trade and includes guidelines for the offloading of Australian live animals arriving in the Middle East. “The welfare of animals extends past their destination port to their post arrival and handling and improving these standards is key to our live animal export trade,” Burke said.