Safe presents crate petition
A 100,000-strong petition calling for pig farrowing crates to be banned has been presented to Parliament.
The controversial crates are used to house a sow for five weeks, just before and after she gives birth, to stop her crushing her piglets. During that time she will be unable to turn around or move more than a few paces back and forth.
About 30 per cent of New Zealand’s pig farms do not use the crates but keep their pigs in huts outside, and brand their products under the Freedom Farms label.
Freedom Farms co-founder Gregor Fyfe said it was an issue of higher productivity versus animal welfare.
‘‘There’s no question that if you use the farrowing system we have there is a higher mortality rate and therefore a cost to the farmer. The offset is that animals have a better and more natural life.’’
New Zealand Pork chairman Ian Carter, who is one of the farmers who uses the farrowing crates for his intensive system, defends it as ‘‘evolving’’, and that’s partly because pigs are evolving and being bred much bigger.
A crate built 10 or 20 years ago is simply not big enough to accommodate some of the 300-plus kilogram sows being bred today.
‘‘There’s no question pigs are getting bigger but we’re also building bigger farrowing systems to meet the changing needs of the animals.
‘‘For example we’re using hygienic plastic rather than stainless steel.
‘‘They also have a lot more piglets than they did 20 years ago so we need to cater for that,’’ Carter said.
Animal rights group Safe, which organised the petition and handed it in last week, said some countries with intensive indoor systems had tried to do away with the crates.
But in 2015, Sweden decided to review its earlier decision to ban them, because too many piglets were being crushed.
‘‘They are looking at it which is a good thing because obviously they’re not doing something right.
‘‘A lot of the research overseas has shown that breeding for large litter sizes of more than 12 as opposed to six or seven is one of the big factors, as well as staff training of the new facilities,’’ Safe spokesman Stephen Manson said.