In a December editorial, The New Zealand Herald credits “the power of shoppers” for forcing a new country-wide pig handling code that will limit the time sows spend in dry stalls beginning in late 2012 and ban stalls outright three years later.
A furor followed the May 2009 televising of a tape made during a night-time break-in at a pig barn by a radical group, accompanied by former pork industry pitchman, an iconic New Zealand comedian. Agriculture Minister David Carter ordered an urgent review of the pig welfare code, which allowed pregnant sows to be kept in individual stalls with a minimum area of 1.2 square metres.