Bikinis in cowshed
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content posted on social media and adult entertainment subscription site OnlyFans.
With exports of animal or animal products valued at $28.6 billion (year to June 2018), MPI says New Zealand needs high animal welfare standards to protect our reputation worldwide.
MPI and the SPCA mostly enforce the rules under the Act. They jointly investigate about 16,000 complaints each year. NZ Police also has power to enforce the rules.
Fines for infringement can be up to $50,000 or up to 12 months in prison for individuals, and fines up to $250,000 for a corporate.
The 1999 Act was amended in 2015 to improve the enforceability, clarity and transparency of the animal welfare system. Those amendments have progressed in three lots:
The first, in 2016, covered bobby calves and the export of livestock for slaughter
The second, in 2018, was on the care and conduct of animals
The third and final lot, now being discussed, looks at ‘significant surgical procedures’, i.e. who may do procedures on animals and in what circumstances.
The proposed changes will, if adopted, take effect on May 9, 2020.
MPI says the regulatory proposals build on submissions received in 2016, with 26 proposals either new or markedly different from the 2016 starting point.
The proposals are in six sections:
Section A - animal husbandry, affecting cattle, sheep, pigs and goats
Section B - equids such as horses and donkeys
Section C - poultry and game fowl
Section D - animals in research, teaching and testing environments
Section E & F - electric prodders, pain relief and ‘competent persons’.
Some proposals are on farmers giving animals pain relief or local anaesthesia for, say, disbudding or de-horning as authorised by a vet.
Deadline for submissions: July 24, 2019. Feedback can be made via an online survey accessed at www.mpi.govt.nz/animal-consult, or by e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
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