Clean, green, and cruelty free

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Clean, green, and cruelty free?


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Catherine Amey

Clean, green, and cruelty free?The true story of animals in New Zealand


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Anti-copyright 2008May not be reproduced or the purposes o prot.

Published by Rebel PressP.O. Box 9263e Aroe Whanganui a ara (Wellington)

Aotearoa (New Zealand)Email: [email protected]

Web: www.rebelpress.org.nz

National Library o New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication DataAmey, CatherineClean, green, and cruelty ree? : the true story o animals in New Zealand / compiled byCatherine Amey or the Animal Protection Society.ISBN 978-0-473-13340-51. Animal welare --New Zealand. 2. Animal welare --Moral and ethical aspects --NewZealand. 3. Agriculture --Moral and ethical aspects --New Zealand.I. itle

636.08320993dc22

Printed on 100% recycled paper.Cover design and layout: Valerie Morse.Bound with a hatred or the State inused into every page.Set in 11pt Adobe Garamond Pro. itles in 18pt Maiandra GD.


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Dedicated with love to abby, who aithully kept my knees warmwhile preparing this document. She is also solely responsible or anytypographic errors!


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CONTENTS

INRODUCION 11

ANIMALS AND HE LAW 14Great ApesMarine mammals in the wild

Animal experimentation

ANIMALS IN AGRICULURE: A PASORAL IDYLL? 18Dairy cows

Bee cattle

Sheep

Pigs

WILD ANIMALS ON NEW ZEALAND FARMS 34Deer

Goats

Alpacas

Intensive rabbit arming

Bees

Ostriches and emusPossums

BIRDS IN BARNS AND CAGES 44Broiler arms

Layer hens

urkeys, ducks, and geese

BLOOD HARVESING, LIVE EXPORS, ANDSLAUGHERHOUSES 52

Blood harvesting

Live exports

ransportation and slaughter

Te horsemeat industry


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AQUACULURE

COMMERCIAL FISHING 62

rawl shing, seine netting, gillnets, and longlinesShark nning

Bycatch

HUNING AND FISHING 69Duck shooting

rophy hunting

Hunt clubs, rabbits, and hares

Sport shing and angling

Catch and release

Catching sh in nets

ANIMALS IN ENERAINMEN:FROM RODEOS O ECOOURISM 77

Rodeos

Racing

Horse racing

Greyhound racingCircuses

Public aquariums

ourism and marine mammals

Zoos

HE PE INDUSRY 88Animal breeders

Pet shopsHow we treat pet animals

Docking dogs tails

Domestic abuse and animal cruelty

ANIMAL PESS Poisoning introduced mammals - brodiacoum, 1080, phosphorus, pindone, and

cholecalcierol

Kill traps and leghold traps

Killing possumsDeers as pests

Stoats, errets, and weasels

Mice, rats, and hedgehogs

Canada geese

Rabbits and hares


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Te campaign against wild goats

Te slaughter o wild pigs

Stray and eral cats

Kaimanawa horses

ANIMAL EXPERIMENS Animal experimentation statistics or 2005

Institutions carrying out experiments on animals

Agriculture-related animal experiments

ransgenic and cloned animals

Aquaculture research

Medical experiments

Animals killed or teaching purposesPsychological experiments

oxicity testing

Environmental research

Pest control experiments

IMAGINING ANIMAL LIBERAION A PERSONAL VIEW 120


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Lie in New Zealand is based around animal abuse. About a sixth o our nationalexport earnings come rom the dairy industry, and another tenth rom meatexports;1 deer velvet and wool also orm a signicant part o the export market. Enor-mous numbers o animals are killed to satisy our appetites. In 2006, each person ate 37kg o poultry (up rom 28 kg in 2000),2 34 kg o bee, and 20 kg o pork.3 wo iconicNew Zealand dishes are lamb chops and pavlova made rom battery eggs, served with

whipped cream rom the dairy industry dishes eaten by Kiwi blokes who spend theirspare time hunting, shing, and at the races.

Every year we slaughter around 24 million lambs, 2.2 million bee cattle, 1 milliondairy calves, 650,000 deer, 700,000 pigs, 67 million chickens, and three quarters oa million tonnes o sh. Many o these animals have endured appalling lives. Around2.5 million battery chickens are crowded into tiny cages, unable to spread their wings.Tousands o pregnant sows endure boredom and rustration, biting at the bars o stallstoo cramped to allow them to turn around. iny oetal calves are induced prematurely,so that their blood can be drained away or the prots o the blood products exportindustry. Many animals suer or human entertainment, in circuses, zoos, aquariums,racetracks, and rodeos. Tousands are hunted or sport every year, or mistreated ascompanion animals. Still more animals are trapped, shot, or poisoned because they havebeen dened as pests, or endure pain in laboratory experiments to increase the prot-ability o the agricultural industry.

Relatively little has been written on animal suering in New Zealand. Tis bookletgathers together some acts about animal lie and death in this country. It is a work inprogress, and more details can be ound by consulting the texts reerred to in the oot-notes. While the emphasis is on animal suering, some environmental inormation hasbeen included in the section on sheries. Commercial shing has a devastating impacton both sh and other species. However, the philosophical arguments or animal rightsare not covered, as there are already many books that explain these in detail.

We hope this inormation will be useul when writing leaets, submissions, or lettersto the editor, and we intend to update it regularly. Tere are compelling environmentalarguments against animal-based agriculture, and we plan to incorporate inormationabout the environmental impacts o animal exploitation into uture editions. Inorma-tion is a rst step towards creating a cultural change in the way we interact with ani-mals.

Introduction


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12 Introduction

For the world can change, even within the space o a single lietime, and cruelpractices, no matter how protable, can be abolished. At the end o the 18th century,over three-quarters o all humans alive were slaves or sers o some kind. Tis was a time

when, as historian Seymour Drescher puts it, reedom, not slavery, was the peculiarinstitution.4 Yet, by 1837, legislation had been passed outlawing slavery within theBritish Empire, and by the end o the 19th century, slavery was outlawed almost eve-rywhere, at least in theory. One o the rst British anti-slavery campaigners, TomasClarkson, lived to see the abolition o slavery throughout the British Empire, as on Au-gust 1, 1838, 800,000 enslaved men, women and children ocially became ree,5 caus-ing a huge loss to the economy o the British empire. Even though abolishing slaverycame at a tremendous economic cost (1.8 percent o Britains annual national incomeover more than hal a century6), the right o all human beings to liberty was recognisedas a moral imperative.

More and more people in this country are concerned about animal suering. In a2002 Colmar Brunton poll, 79 percent o respondents said that they would be preparedto pay higher prices or their eggs, i hens could be liberated rom battery cages, andinsisted that battery cages should be banned as soon as possible.7 In the same year theMinister o Agriculture received over 64,000 submissions calling or a total ban on sowstalls.8

Despite an overall trend towards increased meat consumption, some people areavoiding animal products or health or ethical reasons. A survey conducted by A.C.

Nielson on behal o Sanitarium ound that while only two percent o the populationwas strictly vegetarian, 20 percent o people preerred vegetarian ood, and almost athird had reduced their meat consumption in the previous two years.9 Many peopleoverseas are boycotting meat products, and the value o New Zealands meat exports isdecreasing.10 Best o all, there is a growing movement o people speaking out againstanimal suering, with groups such as Animal Action, Save Animals From Exploitation(SAFE), National Anti Vivisection Campaign (NAVC), and numerous local grassrootsgroups gaining momentum in their campaigns against animal cruelty.

Tis book ends with a vision o a gentler Aotearoa New Zealand, where animals are

no longer dened as property, and where human relations with non-human animals arebased around respect, care, and pleasure in each others company, rather than on protand suering. Tere are many ways in which we can work towards realising this vision.Lobbying, education, protest, and direct action are all vital. As more people become in-ormed and ethically motivated, we can work to stop both animal and human suering.


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Introduction 13

Notes

1. Agricultural production, e ara: the encyclopedia o New Zealand, accessed Mar. 12, 2006.

2. Poultry meat, Ministry o Agriculture and Forestry, accessed June 16, 2006.

3. Rennie, Richard, Bee bears down on chicken, Country-wide, accessed June 15, 2007.

4. Hochschild, Adam, Bury the chains : prophets and rebels in the ght to ree an empires slaves(Boston:Houghton Mifin Co., 2005): 2.

5. Hochschild 348.

6. Hochschild 5.

7. SPCA condemns battery cage indecision, 30 Aug. 2004, SPCA New Zealand, accessed Apr. 1,2006.

8. Sow stall ban in sight!, 7 Feb. 2002, SPCA New Zealand, accessed Apr. 1, 2006.

9. Bidwell, Pam, Living a good lie(Wellington: Wellington Branch, New Zealand Vegetarian Society,2002).

10. Gregory, Neville G,Meat, meat eating and vegetarianism: a review o the acts, MAF Policy echnicalPaper 97/16 (Wellington: MAF Policy, 1997).


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he Animal Welare Act 1999 sets out the general legislative ramework or thetreatment o animals in New Zealand. More detailed instructions are specied in aset o animal welare codes drawn up by the National Animal Welare Advisory Com-mittee. Each animal welare code is supposed to be reviewed at least once every tenyears, with New Zealanders having the opportunity to write and present submissions onthe content.

While the Act is an improvement on previous legislation, animal rights law expertDeidre Bourke believes that vast numbers o animals have yet to see any tangibleimprovement in their living conditions. Teir day to day lives and their welare remainslargely unchanged.1Te Act oers only very general guidelines or the care o animals.In theory, the Animal Welare Act guarantees most animals (apart rom shellsh and in-sects) ve reedoms. Tese include ood and water; adequate shelter; the opportunityto display normal patterns o behaviour; appropriate physical handling; and, protectionrom injury and disease. It also includes provisions relating to humane slaughter. How-ever, these do not apply to animal experimentation, hunting (including canned huntsin saari parks), shing, or pest control. Te codes o animal welare, which providemore precise standards, have the legal status o regulations, and are scrutinised by theRegulations Review Committee o Parliament. Tese codes speciy both minimumstandards and recommendations or best practice. Minimum standards are legally bind-ing, and ailure to comply with these can be used as prosecuting evidence i an oenderis charged under the Animal Welare Act. Recommendations, however, have no legalorce, and are oten ignored.

When the new Act came in orce, many o the existing codes o welare (includingthose or broiler chickens, layer hens, pigs, rodeos, zoos, and circuses) breached the Act.In particular, these codes did not comply with the requirement or animals to have theopportunity to display normal behaviour patterns. However, the old codes have beenallowed to stand while industry revises them. Tis has proved to be a process o continu-ous stalling. Industries are continuing to draw up their own codes, which oten havelower standards than those specied in the Act. In eect, codes o welare have becomeoriented towards protecting companies rather than animals.2

While the Act provides little protection or wild or pest animals, it enables restric-tions to be placed on the types o traps and devices used in trapping animals, and oranimals caught alive (or example during pest control) to be killed humanely. 3 In theory,

Animals and the lawChapter 1


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Animals and the Law 15

the Minister o Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) can prohibit traps i they cause unac-ceptable pain or distress. Unacceptable distress is usually taken to mean that the ani-mal is not killed immediately, but suers in agony or three minutes or longer. However,traps such as the Fenn trap and leghold traps have not been banned, despite breachingthe Act. Tese devices are still used extensively.

Great apes

Te Animal Welare Act makes it illegal to experiment on great apes (chimpanzees,gorillas, orang-utans) in New Zealand, unless the project is carried out with the ap-proval o the Director-General o the Ministry o Agriculture. Any such research canonly be approved i the Director-General is satised that the experiment is in the best

interests o the individual ape concerned, or that it is in the interests o that species andthe benets to the species outweigh any harm to the individual animal. In practice, thislegislation is largely symbolic, as there are only 30 or so chimpanzees and orang-utansheld captive in New Zealand zoos, and no experimentation has ever been carried out onthem.4

Marine mammals in the wild

Te Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 and the Marine Mammals Protection

Regulations 1992 regulate human interactions with wild marine mammals.5 Te MarineMammals Protection Act 1978 provides or the protection, conservation and manage-ment o marine mammals in New Zealand and its territorial waters. Tese include thesea within 12 nautical miles o the Ross Dependency and the internal waters o theRoss Sea. Te Department o Conservation (DOC) administers this Act, and a permitrom the Minister o Conservation is required to capture or kill a marine mammal (seal,

whale, dolphin, porpoise, dugong or manatee). Te Act also provides or marine mam-mal sanctuaries.

Te Marine Mammals Protection Regulations 1992 regulate recreational activi-

ties such as whale watching and swimming with dolphins. Tese regulations are alsoadministered by DOC, who randomly place sta incognito on boats and aircrat tomonitor the activities o commercial tourism operators.6

However, despite this legal protection, large numbers o marine mammals aretrapped and die in commercial shing nets every year. Between 1988 and 2003, 7,759seals died in hoki sheries, and at least 2,000 New Zealand sea lions have been killed inthe Auckland Islands squid shery since 1980.7

Animal experimentation

Part 6 o the Animal Welare Act 1999 sets out the procedures which regulate the useo live animals in research, testing and teaching. In particular, the Act species that allinstitutions using live animals must hold a Code o Ethical Conduct, and an AnimalEthics Committee must approve each experiment or project. Te members o the Ani-mal Ethics Committee must include an animal welare organisation member, a vet, anda member o the public appointed by the local regional council. Te legislation species


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16 Animals and the Law

that researchers should weigh the likely benets o the research against the harm causedto the animals. Tey should also consider whether they can reduce the number o ani-mals used, rene the techniques to minimise harm and maximise benets, and replaceanimals with non-living or non-sentient alternatives where appropriate.

Te system o animal ethics committees is overseen by the National Animal Eth-ics Advisory Committee (NAEAC), which once a year releases an annual report sum-marising the numbers o animals used in experiments in New Zealand. Experimentsare graded in categories, rom those described as causing little or no suering, rightup to those causing severe suering. However NAEAC reports usually contain littleinormation about the experimental procedures, institutions or individual researchersinvolved. It is extremely hard to obtain details about specic experiments. Te statisticsNAEAC provides are very general, and tend to include large numbers o projects based

around non-invasive conservation research (tagging o birds etc.), so that the proportiono animals experiencing suering appears articially low. NAEAC is now proposing tochange the manipulation severity scale, so that experiments are graded as causing im-pacts rather than suering.8 A sixth category o unacceptable impact will be added.Such unacceptable experiments are limited to procedures that will never be carriedout in New Zealand, and this category seems designed to make the experiments that dooccur appear less reprehensible.9

In theory, animal ethics committees should be able to provide some kind o protec-tion or animals. However, in practice it is dicult or these committees to operate with

any real independence. Te animal welare representatives are usually untrained andoutnumbered by the researchers (who have a vested interest in animal experimentation).Even the veterinarians on the committee may be involved in animal experimentation, orhave clients in the industry. It is also dicult or the public representatives on the com-mittee to provide eective representation, as the Regional Councils who manage theprocess rarely make their contact details known, or allow the wider public to becomeinvolved in the selection process. Tere is considerable secrecy surrounding the animalethics committees and their decisions, and it is very dicult to nd out who actually arethe committee members.

National anti-vivisection organisation (NAVC) considers that the harm-benetassessment process as outlined in the Act is deeply awed. NAVC has pointed out thatthere are no guidelines or weighing the benet o the research against the level o ani-mal suering, and the death o animals in experiments is not taken into account. Tereis no consideration given to the wider risks o research involving technologies such asgenetic engineering and xenotransplantation. Tere is also little evidence that research-ers put genuine eort into seeking reductions in the number o animals, renements inexperimental technique, or replacement o animal experiments it appears that theyoten just need to tick a box to ull the requirements o the Act.10

In summary, the entire regulatory process is surrounded with secrecy, the public andanimal rights/welare community has little or no voice, and there is no serious attemptto reduce animal suering. Te number o animals experimented on has been increasingin recent years: 263,214 live animals were used in research, testing or teaching in 2005 up by almost 20,000 rom 2004.11


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Animals and the Law 17

Notes

1. Bourke, Deidre, Codes o welare: are they really working to protect animals? ARLAN, accessed July4, 2006.

2. Bourke.

3. Te Animal Welare Act, Biosecurity New Zealand, accessed Aug. 11, 2006.

4. Family obligations, Massey, 14 (2002), accessed Dec. 23, 2006.

5. Constantine, Rochelle, Eects o tourism on marine mammals in New Zealand, Science orConservation 106 (Wellington: Dept. o Conservation, 1999): 7.

6. Baxter, Andrew S. and Michael Donoghue, Management o cetacean watching in New Zealand,accessed Jan. 2, 2006.

7. Marine mammals, e ara : the encyclopedia o New Zealand, accessed Jan. 2, 2006.

8. Research results 2004/05 research nal report summaries,MAF Policy Inormation Paper06/01,accessed Jan. 2, 2006.

9. NAEAC news, no. 25 (2007): 1.

10. National Anti Vivisection Campaign,A critique o the animal ethics committee system, 2005(Wellington: National Anti Vivisection Campaign, 2005).

11. National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee June 2005, accessed Jan. 2, 2007. p. 19.


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he agricultural industry is the major source o animal suering and death in NewZealand. Every year, hundreds o thousands o beings are born, attened, andslaughtered. Teir lives are measured in months, sometimes in weeks. Teir mothersare continually pregnant, and their babies are continually taken rom them. When themothers ertility declines, she too is killed.

When we consider the sheer numbers o livestock in New Zealand, it can be hardto remember that arm animals are individual, sentient beings, and that each cal orpiglet experiences pain and joy as vividly as any puppy or kitten. Farmers oten treatanimals as production units. A recent New Zealand arm management textbook talksmuch about inputs, outputs, and benchmarks, and little about the animals on whichthe industry is based. Te book does however, describe animals as inventory items,dening a newly purchased lamb as raw material, a growing lamb as a WIP (work inprogress), and a lamb sent to slaughter as nished goods. Te text discusses the di-culties o stress management or the armer and his amily, but never mentions the earand pain suered by the animals.1

Yet we know that thousands o cows suer rom mastitis and lameness, and a milliontiny calves die every year as a direct result o the dairy industry. Male calves who are notslaughtered at a ew days o age are castrated without anaesthetic. Tousands o merinosheep have hunks o esh ripped rom their hindquarters, in a process called mulesing.Hens are crammed into cages so small they are unable to spread their wings, while sowsspend much o their lives trapped behind the bars o barren crates. Tousands o broilerhens and ducks are imprisoned in dark sheds.

Almost all agricultural animals end their lives at the slaughterhouse. Industries andactivities linked to agriculture cause much animal suering. Animal experimentation isclosely associated with the agricultural industry. Every year, over 100,000 live animalsare experimented on in attempts to make them grow aster, give birth to more babies, orproduce tastier esh or modied milk. Pest control is also linked to agriculture. Possumsare trapped, poisoned, and shot because they carry bovine tuberculosis, which threatensthe dairy industry. Rabbits are shot, poisoned, and inected with disease because theyeat the grass that armers require or their sheep. Wild goats, pigs, and geese are per-ceived to threaten arm incomes, and are hunted and poisoned. In 2002, there were atleast 30 abattoirs in New Zealand.2 At Wellington slaughterhouse aylor Preston, over

Animals in Agriculture: a pastoral idyll?Chapter 2


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Animals in Agriculture 19

1,300,000 animals are slaughtered on the sheep and lamb chain every year, while thebee chain slaughters 60,000.3

Dairy Cows

In 2005, there were 5.1 million dairy cows4 in New Zealand, 80 percent o these in theNorth Island. In the year ending September 2006, the dairy industry was worth $5,709million to the New Zealand economy, a gure that seems likely to rise in 2007.5

The life of the dairy cow

cowsendureacontinuouscycleofpregnancyandlactation

80percentofcowsarearticiallyinseminated

thecalfisseparatedfromthemothercowatjust2daysofage

uptoamillionyoungdairycalvesareslaughteredeveryyear

cowsarekilledat8-10yearsofageorearlier

20percentofcowsareculledeachyear

upto55percentofallbeefisfromthedairyindustry

manycowssuerfrompainfulswollenudders(mastitis),lameness,andlackof

shelter

Even though cows generally live outdoors, rather than in barns and eedlots, there istremendous suering associated with the dairy industry. Cows naturally live 25 yearsor more. However New Zealand dairy cows are killed at 8-10 years o age, usually atthe end o the milking season. Around 20 percent o all dairy cows are killed each year,because they are considered too old, or have ailed to become pregnant6 (althougharmers oten ail to correctly identiy pregnant cows).7 Cows orm strong relationships

with other cows, spending most o their time in riendship groups o 2 to 4 cows wholick and groom each other,8 and this annual slaughter is distressing to their riends in

the herd. Cows are intelligent animals who enjoy challenges and eel excitement whenthey nish a task or use their intellect to overcome an obstacle. According to researcherDonald Broom, Te brainwaves showed their excitement; their heartbeat went up andsome even jumped into the air. We called it their Eureka moment. Te dairy indus-try is closely integrated with the meat industry. Up to a million male dairy calves areslaughtered or meat every year. Cross-bred dairy heiers are mated once, to a bee bull,and then slaughtered at the age o 30-32 months, along with their calves.9 Up to 55percent o all bee produced is rom cattle bred or the dairy industry.10

Cows are notoriously horny, yet many New Zealand cows never meet a bull. 80

percent o cows are articially inseminated with sperm rom genetics companies suchas Livestock Improvement and Ambreed.11 Only cows who ail to become pregnantarticially are allowed to mate with a bull.12 Livestock Improvement Corporation is thedominant player in the articial insemination market, collecting semen rom 15 bullsto inseminate three quarters o New Zealands dairy cows. Sperm is collected everyew days during the spring season. Castrated steers are held in metal pens, their headssecured between metal bars, with the aim o teasing the bulls until they are sexu-


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20 Animals in Agriculture

ally aroused. Te bulls penis is then ejaculated into a sleeve called an AV or articialvagina.13

During her short lie, each cow endures a continuous cycle o pregnancy andlactation, producing on average over 3,700 litres o milk during the 300-day milkingseason,14 and giving birth to 4-10 calves. Drugs may be used to articially induce herlabour, so that she is in milk or longer.15 Around 7 percent o cows are induced in 53per cent o New Zealand herds.16 Induction o calving is stressul, and is associated withincreased retention o the aterbirth, and diseases such as acute collapse syndrome.17 Aninduced cow may not produce enough colustrum, and this will impair her young cal simmune system.18 Tere have been some moves to ban the induction o dairy cows, andthe drat Animal Welare (Dairy Cattle) Code o Welare 2006 recommends that in-duced calving should be used or management purposes only as a last resort.19 Howev-er the nal decision is let up to the armer. Farm workers oten also perorm pregnancyexaminations. Tese involve a armer examining the cow by eeling up her rectum, orperorming an ultrasound scan. Such examinations are oten inaccurate, and can lead topainul or atal rectal peroration.20

When the cal is only 4 days old, he or she is taken away, and either sent to slaughterimmediately, or reared in a cal paddock until weaning.21 In the 6-8 weeks ater calving,cows lose weight and condition rapidly, as their bodies consume themselves to providemilk or the absent calves22 so that we can buy milkshakes to wash down burgersmade rom the body o those same calves. Researchers have estimated that a modern

dairy cow is under as much metabolic strain as a cyclist in the our de France.23

Cows are usually milked twice a day, and oten walk up to 2 or 3 kilometres to bemilked by machine. Many dairy cows suer rom lameness due to these long walkingdistances, or rom standing on concrete suraces while being milked. Lameness is anagonizing condition, and sometimes cows are in too much pain even to be able to stand.Lameness oten goes untreated.24 A recent survey ound that almost hal o all herdsincluded some lame cows, with up to a third o cows suering rom lameness.25 Cowsalso have the ability to learn rom each other, another indication o their intelligence,

which is comparable to that o a dog and a bit higher than that o a cat. I an individual

cow in a herd is shocked by an electric ence, the rest will become alarmed and learn toavoid it.26

Around a quarter o New Zealand dairy cows suer rom mastitis at some time intheir lives.27 Symptoms include hot, swollen, acutely painul udders, ever, and loss oappetite. Te cows udder may become so inamed that it is as hard as a stone, andblood bubbles into her milk, which becomes clotted and watery.28 Severe cases o mas-titis can kill a cow in 24 hours.29 A recent study carried out by Chris Compton romthe Animal Health Centre in Morrinsville ound that 25 percent o all heiers sueredrom clinical mastitis within 14 days o calving,30 while a 1999 study o cows o all ages

ound that around 10 percent suered rom mastitis.31

Modern cows have been bredor milk production to the point where the teats o their enlarged udders dangle closeto the ground, and become muddy and inected. In act, or each centimetre increasein distance between the ground and the cows teat, the risk o mastitis decreases by 7percent.32 Some armers are moving to a once-a-day milking system, which is less workor the armer. While this means cows spend less time walking, the new system tends toincrease udder pressure in high yielding cows, causing extra stress and mastitis risk.33


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Although tail docking is not as common in cattle as in sheep, the tails o some dairycows are amputated using a tight rubber ring, or a searing iron, in order to improvecomort or milking personnel, and enhance milking eciency,34 or to try and stopmastitis. However, the scientic evidence or mastitis prevention is inconclusive. A USstudy by researcher Dan Weary ound no health benets in chopping o cows tails.35

Amputation is very painul, as the cows tail is richly supplied with nerves and bloodvessels. Cows need their tails to swat away insects, and possibly to communicate withother cows. Docked cows try in vain to ick their tail stumps, and are likely to suerrom neuropathic pain, similar to the phantom limb pain experienced by human am-putees.36 Cattle may also be branded or identication. Te Royal New Zealand Societyor the Prevention o Cruelty to Animals (RNZSPCA) is opposed both to the dockingo the tails o dairy cows, and to the use o hot branding.

Many dairy cows live in bare paddocks without shelter, and suer rom heat in sum-mer and cold winds in winter. In a recent survey, 30 percent o dairy armers had noshelterbelt on their arm. O those who did, only 17 percent had shelterbelts near morethan hal their paddocks. In the South Island, shelterbelts o established trees have beendemolished in recent years. Tis provides wide open pastures or dairy cattle, but alsoexposes them to wind and chill rom southerly and westerly storms which can persistor days.37 Te survey ound that only 6 percent o armers provided overhead shade orcows waiting to be milked in summer (though 40 percent did use sprinklers or cool-ing). On 54 percent o arms, cows had to wait an hour or more to be milked, oten

in exposed conditions.38 In wet winter conditions, cows are oten conned in cramped

stand-o areas or sacrice paddocks to prevent pasture damage by their hooves.39

New Zealand herds oten contain over 300 cows, and sometimes up to 3,000 cows.40Tese large herd sizes are stressul, as each cow can only easily relate to up to 100 otheranimals. In large herds, cows become tense and aggressive, and the relatively intensivestocking rates make it dicult or cows to maintain their personal space.41With therecent expansion o dairy arming in the South Island, numbers o lactating cows andcalves have increased dramatically. Farms have become large corporate structures, whereprots are paramount, and where there is little room or concern about the welare o

the animals.42

Recently, intensive arming systems or dairy cows have been introduced into NewZealand (though these are not intensive on the same scale as battery hen or intensive pigarms). Te July 2005 issue oNew Zealand Dairy Exporter43 describes a arm in Southaranaki, where the cows are ed mainly maize, and stocked at a density o 4.8 cows perhectare. Tey are also milked throughout the year, without the winter respite allowed tocows on conventional arms.

Organic dairying

While cows may have better lives on organic arms, they are still treated as milk produc-ing machines, and are killed as soon as their milk production declines. A study showedthat cows on Swiss organic arms were slaughtered at a young age, just like their coun-terparts on conventional arms.44 Organic standards such as those promulgated by theInternational Federation o Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) still allow thecastration and dehorning o cattle.45


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Slaughter

Most dairy cows end their lives at the slaughterhouse. Bobby calves in particularsuer terribly on their rst and nal journey. ransported as young as 4 days o age,they endure cold and hunger, asting or up to 30 hours, while trying to maintain theirooting in the cattle truck. Tere is no legal requirement o calves to be ed beore beingtransported. While struggling down the ramp o the truck, the tiny calves requentlyall and are injured.46 A 1998 study47 looked at 7,169 young dairy calves who arrivedat a Wanganui abattoir ater a 7-hour journey in cattle trucks. Te research ound that27 arrived in an unacceptable condition lying down, unable to walk, extremely

weak, or seriously injured. A urther 4 percent were marginal, with a wet umbilicus,were hollow-sided, apparently immature, or weak and slow and unsteady on their eet.While these numbers may not seem large, the act that a million dairy calves are slaugh-tered every year means that thousands probably arrive at slaughterhouses in a criticalcondition, and tens o thousands are seriously unwell ater the journey.

Beef cattle

Tere are 4.4 million bee cattle in New Zealand (mostly rom the hereord and angusbreeds). 2.2 million o these are slaughtered every year,48 or domestic consumption, butalso or export to be used in American hamburgers and other processed meats. Bee was

worth around $2,110 million to the New Zealand economy in the year ending Septem-ber 2006.49

Cattlebredandkilledformeat

2.2millionslaughteredeveryyear,at18to32monthsofage

halfamillioncalvescastratedeveryyearwithoutanaesthetic(usingrubberrings,

surgery,oraclamptocrushthespermaticcord)

brandedandtailsdockedwithoutanaesthetic

hormoneimplantsusedinsomecattleraisedfortheexportmarket

ypically a steer is slaughtered at the age o 18-20 months, beore he has seenhis second winter. Hill country cattle, who gain weight more slowly, may live 30-32months beore being sent to the slaughterhouse.50

Every year, more than hal a million male calves51 are castrated at the age o 2-4months, in order to improve the quality o their esh, and make them easier to handle.52Carcasses rom bulls command lower market prices than carcasses rom steers.53 Mostcommonly, the armer applies a tight rubber ring so that the testes wither and drop o,causing chronic pain and abscesses. Other armers surgically remove the testes, usuallyby pulling them out through an incision in the scrotum, and then scraping or cuttingthe spermatic cord with a knie, or simply pulling it until it breaks.54 Less requently,armers apply a clamp to crush the spermatic cord, or place a high-tension latex bandaround the scrotum. All these techniques are extremely painul, as the cal s testes andscrotum are richly supplied with nerves.55 Yet a MAF survey ound that only 3 percento calves received any pain relie.56 Surgical castration (used on 18 percent o calves) can


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cause haemorrhage, inection, and prolapse o the intestine into the scrotum.57 Equip-ment is generally not sterilised. Castrated cattle are in so much pain that they lose theirappetite, and eat dramatically less or around a week ater surgery.58

Calves are oten dehorned to prevent the risk o damage or bruising to their carcassesat slaughter. Te cal s horns are removed either at the horn bud stage, or by amputationin older animals. Disbudding techniques include thermal cautery, caustic chemicals,and surgery. Cautery entails burning the horn bud with a hot iron causing third degreeburns.59 An older cal s horns may be amputated with guillotine shears, embryotony

wire, scoop dehorners, or a butchers saw. Tis causes pain, bleeding, and exposure othe rontal sinuses in older animals.60 Even when pain relie is given, the pain otenoutlasts the local anaesthetic,61 with dehorned calves still obviously in pain 6 hoursater dehorning.62 Anaesthetic is not used on animals who are dehorned or castrated onorganic arms, as this will cause loss o certication.63

Cattle may be branded or identication (usually reeze branded with carbon diox-ide) and their tails are sometimes docked. Ater enduring either branding or docking,cattle show their pain by bellowing, stamping their eet, shaking their head and tail, andicking their ears.64 Calves are moved around the arm, into stockyards and onto trucks

with lead-loaded stock whips (either leather or synthetic), electric prodders, stock canes,or strips o plastic pipe.

raditionally New Zealand cattle have lived in reasonably spacious paddocks. How-ever, an increasing number o bee cattle are being grazed in intensive systems, where a

large amount o their diet comes rom supplementary eed. Signicant mortality rateshave been reported on a ew o these arms, along with concerns that animals sometimeshave little or no access to shade and shelter.65

Tere is one large-scale eedlot in New Zealand. Five Star Bee Whakanui in Ash-burton connes cattle or up to 255 days in concrete oored pens. Te eedlot contains6 rows o such pens, each one kilometre long. Te cattle arrive at about 18 monthso age to be attened on wheat, barley, molasses, and maize silage. When they reachindividual weights o around 800 kg they are trucked to slaughter at Canterbury MeatPackers, and their bodies exported to aiwan, Japan, and Korea.66 Te eedlot holds up

to 15,000 steers at a time. In 2003, 25,000 cattle were attened by Five Star Bee.67

While hormone implants are not generally used in bee production, the exportmarket is an exception, with 750 New Zealand armers using hormone implants in2004/2005 to produce bee or the US hamburger market.68

Sheep

In June 2005, there were around 40 million sheep on New Zealand arms. Around 30million lambs are born each year, 24 million o whom are slaughtered or meat.69

Around 4.5 million adult sheep are killed or their esh.70

Lamb and mutton wasworth $1,806 million to New Zealand in the year ending September 2007.71Sheep woolis also a major source o export earnings, generating around $550 million a year. NewZealand is the worlds largest producer o coarse wool used or products such as carpet.Te lie cycle o a sheep begins when the mother ewes are mated in February or Marchto give birth in August or September. At this time weather is still cold, particularly inthe South Island, and lambs oten suer and die rom exposure. eazer rams are


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paraded past ewes to induce them to ovulate early, so that they will give birth in earlyAugust.72 Tis lets armers supply meat companies with early spring lambs ahead ocompetitors. However, in the south o New Zealand, heavy snowalls regularly kill thou-sands o lambs. A 1999 survey estimated that 6-10 percent o all lambs born in WestOtago and Southland die o exposure.73 In the severe snows o 1992, up to 50 percent osheep on Canterbury arms died o suocation, exposure, stress,starvation, or drown-ing, with one arm seeing nearly 4,000 sheep die.74 According to Hawkes Bay live sheepexporter George Assa, the annual sheep mortality on New Zealand arms averages ataround 11 percent.75 Ewes are physiologically designed to produce just one lamb atera 5 month gestation. However, due to genetic selection, multiple births are now com-monplace. Births involving twin or triplet lambs are more likely to be dicult, with ahigh incidence o lamb deaths in multiple births. A 2005 study o 20 ocks ound thatthe mortality rate or lambs born as triplets was 29 percent between birth and weaning.Overall, about 14 percent o lambs die between birth and weaning.76

Thelifeofsheep

24millionlambsslaughteredeveryyear

thousandsofearlybornlambsdieofexposure

merinolambsaremulesed,byslicinglargechinksofeshandskinfromtheir

backsides,withoutanaesthetic,leavingableeding,gapingwound

malelambsarecastratedandhavetheirtailsdocked,withoutpainrelief

Increasing numbers o ewes undergo articial insemination. Companies such asInvercargill-based Genetic Gains Ltd.77 collect semen rom superior rams by handmasturbation or electrical stimulation. Ewes are then inseminated by squirting thesemen into the cervix or vagina, or directly into the uterus with a laparascope ahighly invasive and stressul procedure.78 Embryo transer technology is also used bysome New Zealand armers. Donor ewes are superovulated, which means that they areinjected with hormones to increase the number o eggs produced. Te ertilised eggs arethen ushed out o the ewes uterus, and implanted surgically into recipient ewes.79

Although the most common New Zealand sheep breed is romney, merinos make upabout 7 percent o the New Zealand ock. In an attempt to prevent ystrike, hal oall merino sheep are mulesed. Mulesing involves slicing large chunks o skin and eshrom the backsides o live merino sheep to prevent blowy inestation.80 Strips o skinare removed rom either side o the perineum and rom each side o the tail, usually

without any pain relie,81 leaving a bleeding, gaping wound. Tis eventually heals, creat-ing a large area o scar tissue devoid o wool. Mulesing causes extreme pain both at thetime it is carried out and during the healing process. Tere is also a risk o inection andystrike o the wound itsel.82 A series o research studies showed that lambs were still inextreme pain 24 hours ater mulesing, and some were still in pain 2 days later. Mulesedlambs remembered the traumatic procedure or a long time and avoided the handler or

weeks aterwards.83 Farmers who do not mules use a variety o conventional practices tomanage y strike, including spray washing and diet regulation. Others simply avoid theproblem by raising sheep who have been bred to have smooth skin or a bare breach.84

Few people realise that mulesed sheep are actually still vulnerable to ystrike. An Aus-


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tralian study ound that 35 percent o mulesed and crutched merino ewes were aectedby ystrike.85

Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire Moors (Britain) taught themselves to roll 8 eetacross hoo-proo metal cattle grids and raid villagers valley gardens. According to a wit-ness, Tey lie down on their side, or sometimes their back, and just roll over and overthe grids until they are clear. Ive seen them doing it. It is quite clever, but they are a bignuisance to villagers.86

Lambs tails are routinely docked to prevent the ormation o dags and ystrike.Te tail is amputated surgically without pain relie using a rubber ring or a hot sear-ing iron.87 Tis is an agonising procedure. Docked lambs show nervous system changes

which indicate that they experience long term post-amputation pain.88 In act, tail dock-ing is not necessary there are breeds o sheep who have naturally short tails, and insome countries lambs are never docked.89

Pizzle dropping is carried out on a ew arms in the South Island, to prevent pizzlerot in castrated male merino sheep. Te skin that holds the prepuce against the belly iscut with modied mulesing shears so that the end o the intact prepuce hangs ree othe abdomen.

Most male lambs are castrated without pain relie. A survey carried out in 2000ound that 41 percent o male lambs were partially castrated (using the short scrotumtechnique), 39 percent o male lambs were let entire, and 20 percent were ully castrat-ed, producing wethers.90 Te methods used are the same as or calves rubber rings,

surgical castration, high tension bands, and clamping the spermatic cord. Te long termconsequences o tail docking and castration include chronic pain, hyperalgesia, phan-tom pain, and neuropathic pain.91

Being shorn is extremely stressul to sheep. Tey are mustered, isolated rom othersheep, handled by humans (sheep are usually very araid o humans, reacting to peoplein the same way that they do to wolves and other predators), captured, and held upsidedown.92 Beore shearing, adult sheep who are not pregnant are held in bare yards with-out ood or 18-32 hours, and without water or 12-24 hours. Tis makes the shearers

job easier, and keeps the wool clean.93 During the shearing process, sheep requently

experience skin cuts that may become inected with bacteria, causing caseous lym-phandenitis. As the sheeps eece normally provides protection rom both cold and sun,sheep are vulnerable to hypothermia or 2-4 weeks ater shearing.94

Pigs

In 2005 there were over 340,000 pigs on New Zealand arms,95 most o them destinedto be eaten by New Zealanders. As two litters per sow are usually raised each year, thetotal number o pigs killed in the year ending September 2005 was 765,000.96 Te pork

industry is worth $185 million to the New Zealand economy.97

While pigs are armedboth outdoors and indoors, much o the pork industry is based around intensive, in-door actory arms.98 Standard industry practices such as the use o sow stalls, arrowingcrates, and boar stalls deprive pigs o the opportunity to express their natural instincts,and lead to psychologically disturbed behaviour and health problems. A 1999 surveyound that 67 percent o sows were conned in arrowing crates, and 32 percent in drysow stalls.99


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A ew years ago, it became legal in New Zealand to inject pigs with the growthhormone Porcine Somatotropin (PS), which is produced rom genetically engineeredbacteria, and makes pigs grow by up to 20 percent more in the last month o theirlives. While it is not certain whether local pig armers have started using PS, overseasstudies have shown that the series o injections can cause abscesses and lameness.100 NewZealand pigs may also be ed chemicals that have been banned overseas. Tese includeurazolidone (a carcinogenic nitrouran drug) and dimetridazole.

Some young pigs are imported alive into New Zealand rom countries such as Aus-tralia101 and New Caledonia102 a journey by ship during which the pigs must endureexcessive heat, cramped conditions, and rough seas. Tey are not allowed straw or hayor bedding. Te pigs spend long lonely periods isolated in quarantine or 45 days be-ore the voyage and 30 days ater the voyage.103

20,000 sows (around 55 percent o all sows) are kept in dry sow stalls or part orall o their 115-day pregnancy. Sow stalls are bare narrow cages, averaging around 0.6metres wide and 2 metres long.104 Usually no bedding materials are provided. Whenconned in stalls, sows do not even have enough room to turn around. Living in such abarren environment causes boredom, rustration, abnormal behaviour patterns,105 aggres-sion, unresponsiveness, weak bones and muscles, urinary tract inections, and abnormal-ities o bone and muscle development.106 Te bored pigs oten chew in rustration on themetal bars o their cages. While the National Animal Welare Advisory Committee hasrecommended a reduction in the use o dry sow stalls, the new regulations do not come

in orce until 2015, and still allow sows to be kept in stalls ater arrowing, and also orthe rst 4 weeks o pregnancy.

Thelifeofpigs

over60,000breedingsowsareconnedinbarrencages(thedrysowstallorthe

farrowingcrate),causingextremepsychologicalandphysicalsuering

boarsarekeptinisolation,inpensorcrampedcages

youngpigsareraisedincrowdedpens,andslaughteredat5-6monthsofage

pigsoncommercialpigfarmsareterriedofhumans

Some pig armers do not comply with even the very limited space requirementso theAnimal welare (pigs) code o welare 2005.107 Colin Kay, a director o the NewZealand Pork Board, owns a arm near Levin. Tere many sows are conned in cageseven smaller than the dimensions specied in the code which he himsel helped write.108

When animal advocates objected, the MAF decided to reinterpret the code as describingthe outer wall dimensions o the crates, rather than the space available to the pigs.

When about to give birth, many sows are moved to arrowing crates. Here they arekept in cramped stalls (on average 0.8 metres wide and 2 metres long)109 or up to 6

weeks, until the piglets are weaned. Industry sources claim that this is to prevent thesow rolling over and crushing the piglets. However, the scientic evidence on this isuncertain, and the sows certainly suer appallingly rom their connement, unableto build nests or their piglets, or mother them properly. Sows in arrowing crates alsosuer an increased risk o lameness ans diseases o the urogenital system.110 Over 60,000New Zealand sows spend their entire lives in cramped connement, either in the sowstall or the arrowing crate.111


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On an intensive arm, a piglets lie begins with her eyeteeth cut and her tail dockedwithin 3 days o birth. She is likely to be dosed with drugs and antibiotics, with about50 percent o piglets being dosed within 4 days o birth with the antimicrobial toltraz-uril.112

Although in nature piglets suckle rom their mothers or 12 weeks, on actory armsthe tiny pigs are weaned and separated rom their mothers at only 3-5 weeks o age,113and moved to cramped pens with concrete oors. Here they are attened in groups o a100 to 200 pigs beore slaughter. When ully grown, there is not enough space or thepigs to lie on their sides without touching other animals, which is extremely uncomort-able in hot summer weather.114 Tere is not enough space or the pigs to express theirnormal behaviour patterns. Piglets have natural exploratory instincts to nose, root orchew, and oten show disturbed behaviour such as biting each others tails when unableto do this.115 Rather than allowing the piglets more space, armers routinely cut o thepiglets tails. Unsurprisingly, pigs on intensive pig arms are terried o humans, show-ing a chronic stress response.116In nature pigs preer a separate toilet area, but in actoryarms there is no room or this the piglets sit or lie in their own excrement.

Te young pigs are slaughtered at around 5 months o age.117 ransportation to theirdeaths at the slaughterhouse is the nal terriying experience o their lives, and is otenaccompanied by physical injuries. Overseas studies indicate that 25 percent o trans-ported pigs suer rom bruising, leg ractures, or other injuries.

Food products sold in New Zealand do not have to be labelled with the country o

origin, and the pork that consumers buy may come rom countries where the animalwelare standards are even worse than those in New Zealand. In April 2007 Green MPSue Kedgley criticised Wairarapa company Premiere Bacon or selling bacon under thelogo Country goodness rom the heart o the Wairarapa118 when the bacon was actu-ally imported rom overseas.

Boar stalls

Boars are generally kept alone, either in pens or in cages (boar stalls) o similar size to

the arrowing crate (on average 0.7 metres wide and 2 metres long).119

Like sows, boarsisolated in crates suer rom boredom, rustration, and lack o exercise. Tey are alsovulnerable to urine scald. 120

Free range pig farms

Free range pigs certainly have richer lives than their cousins on intensive arms theyare able to roam, graze and wallow reely, socialize, and build nests or their young.However, their lives are cut dramatically short by the slaughterhouse. On some ree

range arms, pigs are killed at 4 to 8 months o age121 on others, they live just 14-17 weeks.122 In 1999, 92 percent o ree range pigs had rings, clips, or wires stabbedthrough their noses a painul procedure damaging the sensitive tissue o their noses in order to prevent rooting. Sometimes two or three clips at the same time are insert-ed.123

Proessor Stanley Curtis o Penn State University ound that pigs play and excel atjoystick-controlled video games. He observed that they are capable o abstract repre-


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sentation and are able to hold an icon in the mind and remember it at a later date there is much more going on in terms o thinking and observing by these pigs than we

would ever have guessed. Pigs are much smarter than dogs, according to the research,and even did better at video games than some primates.124


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122. McIlraith, Jocelyn, Happy healthy pigs, New Zealand liestyle block23 (2006): 25.

123. Gregory, N.G. and C.D. Devine, Survey o sow accommodation systems used in New Zealand,New Zealand journal o agricultural research 42 (1999): 193.

124. What the experts say, Te Hidden Lives o Pigs.


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Pigs, sheep, and cows have lived with human beings or thousands or years. However,animals armed in New Zealand include species such as deer, ostriches, emu, andrabbits who still show wild behaviour patterns, and or whom arm environments arehighly unnatural. While humans have raised bees or a longer time, their propensityto sting their keepers shows that they are ar rom tame. Goats and alpacas have a longassociation with humans, but still show wild traits, and survive very successully inreedom. Even possums have been armed or their esh in New Zealand in recent years,though it is not certain whether this practice still continues.

Deer

In 2005, there were 1.7 million deer on New Zealand arms. Deer are raised or theiresh and or velvet, much o which is exported to be used in Asian medicine.1 In theyear ending September 2006, venison and velvet were worth $213 million to the NewZealand economy.2 In 2004, around 650,000 deer were slaughtered.3 Tere is also agrowing trophy deer arming industry in New Zealand, with armers raising allow deer

to be hunted and killed by wealthy American tourists.4,5

Deer arming has its own set oassociated cruelties and deprivations.Te arm environment is very unnatural or deer, who are essentially wild animals.

Red deer, or example, are a woodland species. Wild hinds enjoy living close to theirmothers, while stags leave their mothers at 2-4 years o age, and orm loose relationships

with other stags. On arms, however, large numbers o deer o the same sex and age arecrowded together, in bare paddocks without shelter or shade. Deer enjoy wallowing,

which helps with tick control and staying cool in summer. Wallowing is a highly socialbehaviour.6 However, many armers try to stop deer wallowing, by draining damp areas,

or by only providing small drinking troughs. Although deer orm strong relations withother deer, deer riendships are oten broken up when the animals are moved around tosuit arm management routines.7

Deer raised or their esh are slaughtered when they reach a target weight, usuallyrom the age o 12 months onwards.8 Hinds who ail to become pregnant are also sentto slaughter, with industry spokesperson Andrew Macarlane recommending that 25

Wild animals on New Zealand farmsChapter 3


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Wild Animals on Farms 35

percent should be culled every year. Tis means that the average young hind would beslaughtered ater only three years in the herd.9

Deer are extremely araid o humans, and they nd it traumatic to be handled. OnNew Zealand arms, deer are routinely handled during weaning, tagging, weighing,drenching, and tuburculosis (B) testing.10 Articial insemination (with the associatedstressul handling) is also becoming popular with deer armers.11 Fawns are generallytagged beore they are 5 days old. Tis is a terriying experience or both awn andmother, and awns oten cry out with the shock.12

Deerfarming

650,000deerareslaughteredeveryyear

farmenvironmentsmakenormaldeersocialstructuresimpossible

fawnsseparatedfromtheirmothersmournandpacethepaddockfencelineforatleast3weeks

hindswhodonotbecomepregnantareroutinelysenttoslaughter

harvestingofvelvetinvolvesastagsantlersbeingsawnoatraumaticand

stressfulprocess

trophydeerarefarmedtobeshotbywealthytourists

Young deer are separated rom their mothers much earlier than in nature. Red deer,or instance, are weaned and taken away rom their mothers at 3-4 months o age toacilitate arm management. Tis is extremely disturbing or the awns, who pacealong the ence lines o the paddock searching or their mothers. Stressed and depressed,they are more likely to catch disease. Research has shown that awns are still distressed 3

weeks ater separation rom their mothers.13Deer also suer considerably when herded into bare yards and transported or sale or

slaughter. In crowded conditions, deer can suer rom bruising, heat stress and tram-pling. Deer yards are particularly traumatic, with studies showing that simply herdingdeer into yards can cause the rightened animals to exhibit high stress hormone levels.14Deer easily become rightened and aggressive.15 Tey have large sensitive areas o nasaltissue and suer rom the high ammonia levels rom urine and aeces in deer holdingacilities.16 Red deer in particular do not like being moved around, and an article inindustry magazine Deer armerrecommends shiting them by shoving them o balancerom behind.17 Recently, some young deer have been made to go through the processo C scanning, which involves being anaesthetised and restrained. In 2005, 20 young

Wapiti bulls were scanned to provide the image o a slice through the body o the liveanimal, so the armer can measure the distribution o meat, at and bone.18

Deer velvet is harvested by sawing the antlers o. Although usually perormed un-der local or general anaesthetic, this procedure is still stressul to the animals. Te deerare mustered, restrained, anaesthetised, and a cut is made about 1 cm above the pedicleo the antler, using a medium-toothed saw.19 I a local anaesthetic is used, the stag isheld in a crush with his head immobilised. However, despite the anaesthetic, studieshave demonstrated that deer show stress symptoms, such as a pounding heart.20 Evenadministering the anaesthetic can be rightening to the animal,21 and a painul rubberband tourniquet is sometimes applied beore pain relie is given.22 Antlers in velvet havea well developed nerve and blood supply, and the wounds created by their removal can


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36 Wild Animals on Farms

become inected.23 Lignocaine, the standard anaesthetic used, may also cause tissue ir-ritation.24

ight bands called NaturO rings are used to remove velvet rom yearling allowdeer.25 Tese are similar to the rubber rings used to castrate adult cattle.26 wo rubberelastrator rings are applied to the pedicle o each antler, cutting o the supply o blood.Sometimes the rings later break, allowing the blood to ow through, and causing painand swelling.27

Although most New Zealand deer live outside, a signicant number are kept indoorsover winter, in cramped connement. Te RNZSPCA is strongly opposed to the in-tensive arming or rearing o deer in indoor acilities28, and hopes or a ban on indoor

wintering. According to MAF Policy consultant Gary Rose, Deer conned indoors ...have shown higher levels o aggression, and skin damage.29

Deer these days are oten armed very intensively with indoor wintering, eedingpads, and a winter diet based on brassica crops. Te deer industry, o course, is keen tomaintain the illusion o a natural lie, stating that People in the marketplace perceivedeer to be managed extensively on open country with natural shelter available. Tisperception o New Zealand deer arming must be maintained.30

Goats

In New Zealand, goats are armed or meat, milk, and bre. Te industry has declined

in recent years, and in 2002, there were 153,000 goats on local arms.31

Tese included40,000 dairy goats. As in the dairy cow industry, the goat milk and meat industries areclosely integrated, with the bodies o slaughtered does and male kids contributing togoat meat production.32 130,000 goats were slaughtered in the year ending June 2005,33and 1,300 tonnes o New Zealand goat meat were exported to 17 countries. 4 mainbreeds o goat are armed in New Zealand boer goats or their esh, angora goats ormohair, and saanen and anglonubian or milk. Goats are milked by hand or machineeither once or twice a day, producing up to 6 litres o milk per goat. Does have to bemade pregnant regularly so that they continue lactating, and they are usually milked

throughout most o their 5 month pregnancy. Ater the kids are born, they are otenseparated rom their mothers and ed rom automatic eeders.34

Fine goats down (cashmere) is harvested by shearing goats beore they moult theirdown in late winter or early spring. As goat hair grows back much more slowly thansheeps wool, shorn goats may suer or die rom exposure.35 Goats are generally shornin the same manner as sheep, even though the traditional method o combing is morehumane. Combing removes the goats down but leaves the outer guard hairs to protectthe animal rom heat and cold. However, modern armers nd combing too time-con-suming and expensive.

Te young kids may be dehorned, or have their horns tipped, typically at 4 days oage. As with calves and sheep, young bucks are castrated at 4-6 weeks o age, withoutanaesthetic. Tree main methods are used: knie, emasculatine, and elastrator bands.Te elastrator method is most commonly used. By law, all registered goats must be tat-tooed, usually in the ear, although la mancha goats generally have their tails tattooed.36


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Alpacas

Tere is a small but growing alpaca industry in New Zealand, with approximately10,000 alpacas on 600 arms. Te industry tends to be polarised between small armers

with a ew animals on liestyle blocks (who may treat them more like pets), and largecorporate enterprises. Alpacas are armed or their eece, which is shorn once a year,and then spun into alpaca yarn. Males not used or breeding are usually castrated underlocal anaesthetic at 2 to 3 years o age. While alpacas oten have better lives than otherarm animals, they are social animals who are very susceptible to stress. Tey are adaptedto cool climates, and can suer rom heat stress in the warmer parts o New Zealand.37

Te larger alpaca armers are beginning to use articial insemination and embryotranser technology in their breeding programmes.38 Tese are invasive processes thatcan be traumatic to the animals. In 2005, alpaca embryos were transplanted into 120recipient emales, and the rst embryo transer cria were born at Homestead Farm, near

Ashburton.39

Intensive rabbit farming

In the 1980s, thousands o rabbits were armed in cages, supplying the pet, meat, ur,skin, or bre markets. Many armers would overbreed rabbits, producing as many as 10litters per year. Te stress led to does as young as 18 months old dying o exhaustion.

Fortunately, the industry is now much smaller. National animal rights advocacygroup SAFE believes that there are now just 3 main rabbit producers, who arm around25,000 animals annually. Rabbits raised or their meat are killed as soon as they reachthe desired slaughter weight at 8-12 weeks o age. Each doe and her litter lives in a wire-oored cage approximately 1m x 70 cm x 50 cm. Sheds are lled with rows o rabbitcages, each building housing up to 100 does. Bucks are oten conned in isolation ex-cept at mating time.40 Pauatahanui meat rabbit armer David Kerr has described keeping230 rabbits in cages in an 800 square oot shed during the 1990s.41

Angora rabbits are shorn like sheep or their ur. SAFE director Anthony erry has

described visiting a rabbit arm where the rabbits were restrained by being stretched outon a shearing rack, and then shorn using modied sheep clippers, causing considerabledistress to the animals.42 New Zealands main angora rabbit arm Te Shearing Shed is

just outside Waitomo.43

Te Palmerston North based New Zealand Rabbit Farmers Association appears tostill exist, and the Rabbit Council o New Zealand includes in its mission statement theaim to encourage the production, marketing and consumption o the products o therabbit. (i.e. ur, wool and esh).44

Bees

Bees have complex societies and are able to communicate to each other the distanceand direction o ood sources. Scout bees in swarms will dance to indicate the positiono potential nesting sites.45 However, bees are not protected by animal welare legisla-tion in New Zealand. In 2000, around 5,000 beekeepers produced over 9,000 tonneso honey, rom 312,000 hives.46 A standard industry practice is to kill the queen honey


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bee every 2 years. Te new queen is then introduced.47 I the queen begins laying dronesrather than worker bees, she will also be killed.48 Queens wings are sometimes clipped

with a sharp pair o scissors to record their age, or marked with nail polish.49 Some-times queen bees are articially inseminated using instruments to inject semen rompreerred drones into the oviduct. Beekeepers oten collect semen by crushing the headand thorax o the drone in their ngers. In the throes o death, the bee everts his penisand ejaculates semen. Te queen is then anaesthetised with carbon dioxide and semen isinserted into her vaginal orice with a syringe.50

Beesdonothaveasweetlife...

thequeenbeeiskilledandreplacedevery2years

beesareoftencrushedwhenthehiveischecked,orhoneyharvested

hivesmaystarvetodeathoverwinter,iftoomuchhoneyistaken

diseasedhives,orhiveswithaggressivebees,areburnt

When the beekeeper harvests the honey, s/he usually removes the bees rom the hiveby brushing, smoking, or with the help o a bee blaster. Bees are oten crushed whilethe hive is being checked, or while honey is being harvested. I too much honey is har-vested, and not enough sugar supplies are provided to replace this, the hive may die ostarvation over winter. I a hive becomes diseased, or i the bees behave too aggressivelytowards the humans who rob them o honey, a standard practice is to burn the hive.51

When hives in the South Island became inested with the Veroa mite in 2006, thou-sands o bees were killed.

Ostriches and emus

Ostriches are armed in New Zealand or their meat, eggs, skin, oil, and eathers. Whileostriches have a natural lie span o some 70 years, chicks raised or meat are slaughteredat only 10-14 months o age.52 Emus are armed mainly or their meat and oil, which is

used in cosmetics. Emu hens produce about 20 chicks per season, who are slaughteredat 12-14 months o age.53Ostriches are the only birds to dance at times other than at mating. Holtzhausen

and Kotze rom South Arica explain: Especially in the early morning, a ew birds ina group will suddenly receive a mystic, inaudible cue and begin to dance in circles ontip-toes, with outspread wings. Very soon the whole group will join spontaneously inthe twirling dance. Tis may be a primeval urge or simply an expression o the joy o be-ing alive. Ostriches and emus are wild birds, and suer greatly under arm conditions.

According to the Council o Europe, ostriches succumb more oten to disease and have

a much higher death rate than other domesticated arm animals.54

Even the roar o apassing arm bike can cause the birds to panic, leading to injury and death.Some New Zealand ostrich and emu chicks are reared intensively in sheds or the

rst 3 months o lie, though older chicks are generally armed outdoors.55As inten-sively armed chicks never see their parents, they will imprint on the human arm

workers who eed them. However, armers generally have little time to spend with thechicks, who then eel deserted. Dr FW Huchzermeyer o the Onderstepoort Veterinary


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Institute explains: Whenever ostrich chicks nd themselves deserted they call with agentle kr kr kr. o the uninitiated it gives the impression that the birds are happy andcontent. Far rom it, this is the sound o utter despair and distress.56I this desertionstress is repeated oten enough, it can trigger stomach ulcers. Stress lowers the chicksimmune system, making her susceptible to disease. Chicks may stop eating, and starveto death, leading to an extraordinarily high death rate amongst armed chicks. Over-seas studies indicate that it is common or 50 percent o chicks to die. Sometimes 100percent o chicks may die.57

As there are only 8 ratite slaughterhouses in New Zealand, emus and ostriches areoten transported long distances to death, a terriying experience or the birds. Overseasstudies have shown that the birds hearts pound, their skin temperature is elevated, andtheir behaviour could not generally be considered normal at any stage. Fighting, peck-ing or stepping on one another causes injury or even death, particularly i birds are load-ed too tightly. Ostriches who have to stand in a stressed state or long periods in truckscan suer rom capture myopathy muscle breakdown leading to brain damage,paralysis or death. Te birds are oten hooded, leaving them disoriented and terried.58

While there is little New Zealand research on ratite transportation, the AmericanOstrich Association describes transportation as dangerous and stressul or both manand beast. Most injuries are related to activities o handling and transport. Loading andtransportation makes the birds unsettled and nervous ... what do you think happens toa bird standing on two legs i you slam on the brakes?59

Once at the slaughterhouse, birds are decapitated, bled to death, or have their necksbroken.60 Birds may be stunned electrically, but may also be slaughtered without stun-ning. Even the New Zealand Ostrich and Emu Standards Council considers that Tissection [o the animal welare code] urgently needs revisiting in line with current animal

welare legislation.61

Possum farming and the possum meat industry

Surprising as it seems, there have been possum arms in New Zealand in recent years.

Until a couple o years ago, Auckland company Arex International exported possumcarcasses to aiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia or human consumption under the brandname Kiwi Bear. Whangarei-based Exotic Game Meats supplied the possum esh.Te trade ceased when the company went into liquidation ollowing the SARS scare in

Asia. Pukekohes Eastherbrook Farms also seem to have been possum armers, supplyingpossum meat pies to Northland Regional Council or use at the Northland AgriculturalField Days at Dargaville in 2005.62

A South Island company, Petes Possum Pies and Pates sells a range o products basedon possum meat. Pies are sold under names such as Road Kill, Headlight Delight Pie,

Guess that Mess, and Shovel Flipped Roadside Pizza. Owner Pete Salter claims that youare helping the environment by purchasing his pies. However, the possum meat usedis actually long rozen meat rom the stocks let over when Whangareis Exotic GameMeats closed down. Salter bought 5 tonnes o the meat and put it in his reezer.63 In2007, there do not appear to be any possum arms let in New Zealand.

Tere is, however, a petood industry based around the esh o trapped possums. In2001, armer Bryan Bassett-Smith launched Possyum, a canned pet ood made rom


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possum carcasses, developing the product with the help o a government grant. Bassett-Smith and his wie run a company called Wildenz, which hires trappers to kill possums,

who are then processed into cat and dog ood in the Dawson Furs actory, based inWhakatane. Possyum petood is sold in New Zealand and exported under the brandname Addiction to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.64


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Notes

1. New Zealand Deer Farming Annual2005: 9.


3. Walton, revor, Kill space critical, Deer armerFeb./Mar. 2005: 1.

4. McKinnon, Lyn, Fallow land with a uture: Millichamp optimistic about trophy arming, DeerFarmerDec. 2005: 8-9.

5. Fallow deer ready or the rie, Aug. 22, 2000, Fallow Farming, accessed Apr. 22, 2006.

6. New Zealand Deer Farming Annual2005: 33.

7. Pollard, J.C. and R.P. Littlejohn, Activities and social relationships o red deer at pasture, NewZealand Veterinary Journal47 (1999): 83-87.

8. Best eeds or deer, Deer FarmerApr. 1998: 11.

9. Hot droppings newsash! Deer Farmer Aug. 2005, accessed Apr. 23, 2006.

10. Harbord, Mike, Deer welare and handling, Deer FarmerNov. 2005: 7-8.

11. Harbord, Mike, Go ater genetic improvement, Deer FarmerNov. 2005: 7-8.

12. Deer FarmerNov. 2005: 20.

13. Pollard, J.C., Mackintosh, C.G., and R.P. Littlejohn, Neuroleptic treatment o red deer calves atweaning, New Zealand Veterinary Journal46 (1998): 111-113.

14. How is pain measured in animals, Deer FarmerOct. 2003: 4.

15. Pollard and Littlejohn.

16. Submission by the Royal New Zealand Society or the Prevention o Cruelty to Animals Inc. on the animalwelare (deer) code o welare 2005, Dec. 8, 2004, RNZSPCA, accessed May 7, 2007.

17. Harbord, Mike, Deer welare and handling, Deer FarmerNov. 2005: 7-8.

18. Post, Sam, Its big, but is it muscle? Deer FarmerFeb./Mar. 2005: 9.

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