Southland farms listed on Aussie animal rights map
Federated Farmers are furious that an Australian animal rights group have begun listing descriptions and addresses of Southland farms on a website map, claiming it could encourage illegal activity by activists on farms.
The map, created by activist group Aussie Farms, lists 150-200 farms, both drystock and dairy across the Southland region.
National president Katie Milne said it was hugely worrying that it could be the start of a more extreme form of animal activism in New Zealand, which in Australia and Europe had seen people break into farms, releasing and stealing stock and chain themselves to farm machinery.
‘‘Hopefully we won’t see things escalate in New Zealand to be the same issue that they are overseas.’’
According to its website, the map was a ‘‘comprehensive, interactive map of factory farms, slaughterhouses and other animal exploitation facilities’’, launched in January this year.
It said it was ‘‘an effort to force transparency on an industry dependent on secrecy. We believe in freedom of information as a powerful tool in the fight against animal abuse and exploitation’’.
The map comes just after Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced the members of a taskforce to respond to animal welfare issues related to winter grazing and escalated tensions between farmers and animal welfare activists around the region.
Waikato-based environmentalist Angus Robson – who has been at the centre of a campaign to stop winter grazing in Southland and has been appointed to the taskforce – categorically denied any involvement with Aussie Farms in publishing the addresses.
He said the first he heard about the map was when he was
‘‘It’s dreadful that some people are being targeted like that. Some farmers in Southland aren’t doing the right thing, there’s a few that spoil it for everyone but some of this is starting to get out of hand.’’
Geoff Young, Federated Farmers Southland provincial president
contacted by Stuff.
‘‘We would never target and individual farmer or name a farmer. We would never do that,’’ he said.
But could not rule out that the information may have been sent to Aussie Farms by one of his team members without his knowledge.
Robson said his team had no use for such a map because winter grazing was so widespread throughout the region.
Federated Farmers Southland provincial president Geoff Young said the map was hugely concerning.
‘‘It’s dreadful that some people are being targeted like that.
‘‘Some farmers in Southland aren’t doing the right thing, there’s a few that spoil it for everyone but some of this is starting to get out of hand.’’
Milne said much of that overseas activism was undertaken in countries which had indoor farms, not the outdoor predominantly pasture-based systems seen in New Zealand.
‘‘We really hope this won’t embolden people to trespass and behave outside the law.’’
Milne said the federation had for many years told farmers about the importance of good onfarm security to prevent theft, vandalism and poaching.
‘‘It’s really inappropriate. It’s an invasion of privacy. To put a target on people’s back, it’s pretty non-New Zealand and discriminatory.
‘‘I really hope the New Zealand public is wiser and realise that there are things done on farms and are done for a reason, but as practices change and as times change our farmers are flexible and can adapt.’’
Milne feared there was little that New Zealand farmers could do to get the address removed from the website because it was an Australian-based group.
‘‘It is a problem around the world where people are so disconnected from their food production and have opinions about how things should be done without any understanding of what that means for food production.’’
Aussie Farms have been contacted for comment.