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Sheep shipping
The Dominion Post photo of the livestock carrier Nada at the Port of Timaru loading some 50,000 sheep and 3000 head of cattle for shipment to Mexico. The ship is capable of holding some 110,000 head of livestock.
LARGEST LIVESTOCK SHIPMENT EVER REMAINS SHROUDED IN MYSTERY
The largest shipment of livestock ever to leave New Zealand remains shrouded in mystery.
While a livestock carrier arrived off Timaru on Tuesday, PrimePort Timaru, livestock brokers and shipping agents refused to discuss the shipment.
The carrier Nada has since docked at the port to begin loading 50,000 sheep and 3000 cattle destined for Mexico for breeding purposes. The number of animals involved supercedes the 35,000 shipped by the Daneb Prima to Mexico in 2007. At the time that was considered the largest shipment ever from New Zealand.
The ship's arrival was not listed in PrimePort's online shipping list. Independent livestock brokers Peter Walsh and Associates refused to speak on the issue but did not deny they were involved in the shipment. Shipping agent Matt Mayo said he was the agent for the Nada but initially claimed it was a passenger ship before refusing to comment further.
It was not until the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) was approached details of the shipment were obtained.
It is understood the animals have been held on Rangitata Island, 50km north of Timaru, for several weeks, in preparation for being transported to the port.
New Zealand does not export livestock for slaughter and has not done so since a Customs Export Prohibition Order was put in place in 2007. Livestock can be exported for breeding, but there are strict animal welfare standards in place.
A spokesperson for the MPI said it received an application for the export of around 50,000 sheep and 3000 cattle tor Mexico.
"Strict animal welfare requirements will need to be met before and during each shipment. These include requirements around water, food, space and facilities and having export-approved stockmen and veterinarians with the animals.
"Before the animals are transported they will be inspected at the port by an MPI veterinarian to make sure they are fit to travel and their transport is sufficient."
New Zealand Meat and Related Trade Workers Union Canterbury branch secretary Bill Watts said it was assumed the lambs were being shipped for breeding stock as it was illegal to ship livestock from New Zealand for slaughter.
"Any live sheep shipment is taking work away from the local freezing works and taking money from the local economy.
"Smithfield (meatworks in Timaru) kill 35,000 lambs a week; those sheep equate to over a week's work for those people. It's disappointing these sheep are going out of New Zealand - it's exporting jobs." - Stuff, June 10, 2015
NZ NEEDS TO STOP PUTTING ANIMALS IN FLOATING PRISONS
Opinion by Catriona MacLennan
What is the point of animal protection laws when they are so ineffective at ensuring animal welfare?
Some 53,000 New Zealand animals are now crammed together aboard a floating prison. They will spend the 16 days travelling from a southern hemisphere winter to Mexico, where the current temperature ranges between 25 and 33 degrees.
New Zealand has had a ban on live sheep exports in place since 2003, following international shock and revulsion at the suffering and deaths of thousands of Australian sheep on the Cormo Express.
However, our prohibition applies only to animals exported for slaughter. The law does not prevent live animals being sent overseas for breeding.
With little public awareness, hundreds of thousands of New Zealand animals are regularly shipped and air-freighted to other nations. This includes 35,000 sheep sent to Mexico in 2007, around 80,000 cattle transported to Mexico, cows exported to China, and sheep air-lifted to Saudi Arabia.
The Animal Welfare Act requires owners and people in charge of animals to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the animals' physical, health and behavioural needs are met in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge.
What this means is that animals should have access to:
- proper food and water
- adequate shelter
- the opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour
- physical handling in a manner which minimises the likelihood of unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress
- protection from and rapid diagnosis of, any significant injury or disease
Shipping live animals half-way across the world fails those tests on a number of grounds. 53,000 animals crammed together on a multi-storey vessel cannot display normal patterns of behaviour. Shockingly, there is only one vet on board to care for the animals. How can one person properly monitor and treat so many animals?
Even if the vet on the Nada worked 24 hours a day and looked at each animal only once during the voyage, literally seconds would be able to be spent with each.
Many of the animals will be so distressed at being at sea that they will refuse to eat. We know this because tens of thousands of Australasian animals have already died at sea in the past two decades.
The fact that the Ministry for Primary Industries - which is the main agency charged with policing animal welfare - is permitting this, shows yet again that it is far more focused on promoting economic benefits than on protecting animal welfare.
There is a clear conflict between the ministry's responsibility to promote New Zealand's exports, and its animal welfare responsibilities. The only way to resolve this is to create an Independent Commissioner of Animal Welfare, with sole responsibility for promoting and monitoring animal welfare and a properly-resourced office to ensure this happens.
The ministry says it has statutory declarations that the animals going to Mexico are strictly for breeding purposes, and not for slaughter.
Will ministry staff be permanently stationed in Mexico to monitor this on an ongoing basis ?
And what of the animals bred from the New Zealand animals? The pregnant ewes already air-freighted from New Zealand to Saudi Arabia will give birth to lambs – will those animals not be slaughtered in a way considered unacceptable in New Zealand ?
If this country had effective animal welfare laws, this would not be permitted. But what we have is a toothless law with so many exceptions that the act's basic protections are all but worthless.
New Zealand animals living in factory farms do not enjoy the fundamental protections set out in the Animal Welfare Act because the law is interpreted to allow for huge loopholes.
These mean millions of pigs and hens continue to suffer agonising lives in cramped conditions, with no opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour.
We should tear up our Animal Welfare Act and start afresh to write a proper law which guarantees real protections to animals. And we should ban live exports.
Catriona MacLennan is a barrister and the co-ordinator of Animal Agenda Aotearoa. - The Dominion Post, June 12, 2015
Sheep shipping
The Dominion Post photo of the livestock carrier Nada at the Port of Timaru loading some 50,000 sheep and 3000 head of cattle for shipment to Mexico. The ship is capable of holding some 110,000 head of livestock.
LARGEST LIVESTOCK SHIPMENT EVER REMAINS SHROUDED IN MYSTERY
The largest shipment of livestock ever to leave New Zealand remains shrouded in mystery.
While a livestock carrier arrived off Timaru on Tuesday, PrimePort Timaru, livestock brokers and shipping agents refused to discuss the shipment.
The carrier Nada has since docked at the port to begin loading 50,000 sheep and 3000 cattle destined for Mexico for breeding purposes. The number of animals involved supercedes the 35,000 shipped by the Daneb Prima to Mexico in 2007. At the time that was considered the largest shipment ever from New Zealand.
The ship's arrival was not listed in PrimePort's online shipping list. Independent livestock brokers Peter Walsh and Associates refused to speak on the issue but did not deny they were involved in the shipment. Shipping agent Matt Mayo said he was the agent for the Nada but initially claimed it was a passenger ship before refusing to comment further.
It was not until the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) was approached details of the shipment were obtained.
It is understood the animals have been held on Rangitata Island, 50km north of Timaru, for several weeks, in preparation for being transported to the port.
New Zealand does not export livestock for slaughter and has not done so since a Customs Export Prohibition Order was put in place in 2007. Livestock can be exported for breeding, but there are strict animal welfare standards in place.
A spokesperson for the MPI said it received an application for the export of around 50,000 sheep and 3000 cattle tor Mexico.
"Strict animal welfare requirements will need to be met before and during each shipment. These include requirements around water, food, space and facilities and having export-approved stockmen and veterinarians with the animals.
"Before the animals are transported they will be inspected at the port by an MPI veterinarian to make sure they are fit to travel and their transport is sufficient."
New Zealand Meat and Related Trade Workers Union Canterbury branch secretary Bill Watts said it was assumed the lambs were being shipped for breeding stock as it was illegal to ship livestock from New Zealand for slaughter.
"Any live sheep shipment is taking work away from the local freezing works and taking money from the local economy.
"Smithfield (meatworks in Timaru) kill 35,000 lambs a week; those sheep equate to over a week's work for those people. It's disappointing these sheep are going out of New Zealand - it's exporting jobs." - Stuff, June 10, 2015
NZ NEEDS TO STOP PUTTING ANIMALS IN FLOATING PRISONS
Opinion by Catriona MacLennan
What is the point of animal protection laws when they are so ineffective at ensuring animal welfare?
Some 53,000 New Zealand animals are now crammed together aboard a floating prison. They will spend the 16 days travelling from a southern hemisphere winter to Mexico, where the current temperature ranges between 25 and 33 degrees.
New Zealand has had a ban on live sheep exports in place since 2003, following international shock and revulsion at the suffering and deaths of thousands of Australian sheep on the Cormo Express.
However, our prohibition applies only to animals exported for slaughter. The law does not prevent live animals being sent overseas for breeding.
With little public awareness, hundreds of thousands of New Zealand animals are regularly shipped and air-freighted to other nations. This includes 35,000 sheep sent to Mexico in 2007, around 80,000 cattle transported to Mexico, cows exported to China, and sheep air-lifted to Saudi Arabia.
The Animal Welfare Act requires owners and people in charge of animals to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the animals' physical, health and behavioural needs are met in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge.
What this means is that animals should have access to:
- proper food and water
- adequate shelter
- the opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour
- physical handling in a manner which minimises the likelihood of unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress
- protection from and rapid diagnosis of, any significant injury or disease
Shipping live animals half-way across the world fails those tests on a number of grounds. 53,000 animals crammed together on a multi-storey vessel cannot display normal patterns of behaviour. Shockingly, there is only one vet on board to care for the animals. How can one person properly monitor and treat so many animals?
Even if the vet on the Nada worked 24 hours a day and looked at each animal only once during the voyage, literally seconds would be able to be spent with each.
Many of the animals will be so distressed at being at sea that they will refuse to eat. We know this because tens of thousands of Australasian animals have already died at sea in the past two decades.
The fact that the Ministry for Primary Industries - which is the main agency charged with policing animal welfare - is permitting this, shows yet again that it is far more focused on promoting economic benefits than on protecting animal welfare.
There is a clear conflict between the ministry's responsibility to promote New Zealand's exports, and its animal welfare responsibilities. The only way to resolve this is to create an Independent Commissioner of Animal Welfare, with sole responsibility for promoting and monitoring animal welfare and a properly-resourced office to ensure this happens.
The ministry says it has statutory declarations that the animals going to Mexico are strictly for breeding purposes, and not for slaughter.
Will ministry staff be permanently stationed in Mexico to monitor this on an ongoing basis ?
And what of the animals bred from the New Zealand animals? The pregnant ewes already air-freighted from New Zealand to Saudi Arabia will give birth to lambs – will those animals not be slaughtered in a way considered unacceptable in New Zealand ?
If this country had effective animal welfare laws, this would not be permitted. But what we have is a toothless law with so many exceptions that the act's basic protections are all but worthless.
New Zealand animals living in factory farms do not enjoy the fundamental protections set out in the Animal Welfare Act because the law is interpreted to allow for huge loopholes.
These mean millions of pigs and hens continue to suffer agonising lives in cramped conditions, with no opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour.
We should tear up our Animal Welfare Act and start afresh to write a proper law which guarantees real protections to animals. And we should ban live exports.
Catriona MacLennan is a barrister and the co-ordinator of Animal Agenda Aotearoa. - The Dominion Post, June 12, 2015