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Award winning Dutch pig castration campaign
Dutch organisation, Wakker Dier has been granted an
Effie Award, the most prestigious Dutch prize in the world of advertising, for
their successful campaign against the castration of piglets without anesthesia.
It is the first time in Holland that an action-organisation wins an Effie.
And the first time that an organization wins without the help of an advertising
agency. Six million boars are now spared the painful procedure, due to the
campaign.
However, the four million male piglets that are exported
alive, mostly to Germany, are still castrated without anesthetics. In
cooperation with the German organization PROVIEH, the awarded campaign will move
on to Germany.
Live
export of piglets
Every year Holland transports
almost 5 million live pigs to Germany. That's more than half of all the Dutch
export pigs. For these pigs the sedation also costs only one cent per kilo. The
growth of the pig meat market in Germany is to a great extent due to
supermarkets Aldi and Lidl.
In Holland these companies already agreed to
only sell meat from pigs castrated while anesthetized, but in Germany this isn't
the case. In their new campaign PROVIEH and Wakker Dier will point this out to
German consumers and companies. "The German meat industry has to start making
animal welfare demands for Dutch and German piglets. When Germany follows, the
rest of Europe cannot stay behind."
Effective
campaign
After several
radio commercials and other press attracting activities the Dutch supermarkets
succumbed to the Wakker Dier campaign. Company after company was convinced to
make an animal friendly choice. McDonald's, BurgerKing, CoopCodis and Febo even
abolished the castration altogether.
Then the declaration of Noordwijk
followed: government, meat industry and supermarkets jointly signed an agreement
in which they declared that from januari 2009 the whole of Holland will no
longer eat and export meat from piglets castrated without anesthesia.
Boar OdourMale pigs (boars) are castrated to prevent 'boar odour': a smell that is
released when the meat of a small percentage of boars, is cooked. Recent
research shows that most people are not even bothered by the smell. In England,
Spain, Portugal and New Zealand, pigs are not castrated. In Norway the sedation
is mandatory. Several countries, like Denmark and Austria, are discussing the
problem due to the Dutch campaign.
Related Website
•
Wakker Dier
•
Provieh
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