New Zealand clamps down on sow stalls

Sunday, February 6, 2011

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.

In December, 2009, the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee announced that the pork industry threatened legal action if draft rewritten regulations were published. There were 18,000 separate public submissions to subsequent hearings, according to the Herald.
New Zealand pork farmers have a marketing opportunity through country-of-origin labelling, the Herald editorial said. "The fact that sow stalls are still used in North America, the source of most imported pork, will not be lost on ethical shoppers." BP