SAFE are upping the ante against the New Zealand Pork Board with further television footage of sows suffering in sow crates up and down the country. They have followed this up with a hard hitting television advertisement starring former Pork Board apologist turned animal welfare campaigner Mike King.

It appears the Pork Board and their friends in government are getting flustered. The Minister of Agriculture announced on November 3 that the long awaited review of the pig Code of Welfare would be available in "about 2 weeks". When I asked MAF for the code a few days ago, they replied that the Minister had been "misquoted" and the code was still not ready.
The minister has not however made any move to correct this supposed "misquotation".

At the same time, the Pork Board PR machine has cranked into action, and several letters and articles were published in community papers, including the "Weekend Sun" assuring us that all is well now they have an "independent animal welfare audit" in place. As I have commented earlier, this is another smokescreen. The audit can only tell us that factory farmers are following the law; the law that pig producers made themselves, and which allows the inhumane incarceration of pigs in spaces so small they cannot turn around.

The ministerial comments and the PR attempts by the Pork Board tell us that they are getting desperate, that they are worried about their threat to the Christmas market. It is therefore a good time to apply consumer power and boycott the Christmas ham.

While we are at it, turkeys are also produced in horrendous conditions and like broiler chickens, may spend a large part of their short life in agony from lameness. Those concerned about animal welfare would be well advised to pass on the turkey as well.

A Google search of "vegetarian Christmas recipes" returned 34,000 hits, so there is no shortage of ideas for alternatives to the standard Christmas fare of factory farmed meat. Christmas is celebrated in New Zealand to remember the birth of Jesus. I put it to all of you that if Jesus was given a tour around our factory pig and poultry farms he would certainly not be impressed.