PIGS BUST'D!

Central Auckland buses have been graced with free-ranging portly pink pigs during peak-hour traffic in recent weeks. SAFE pigs that is. Three people dressed as pigs got on and off buses to highlight the plight of pigs, and to encourage people to stop buying cruel pig products.

The eye-catching action coincided with the launch of our LovePigs TV campaign, which was running on TV3 and C4 until last month.

Each 'piggie' held a placard with a slogan. One read 'Hi. I'm Luncheon. I am sick, lame and live in pain,' while all three pigs sat huddled together on a bus seat designed for two people, to demonstrate lack of space.

Auckland campaign assistant, Hana Spierer, said: "We got a friendly mix of reactions. Some people stared, others laughed, many wanted their picture taken with us, and we even had people saying that we had made their day!"

To view the advert click here

Comfort, not cruelty!

Three ‘little pigs' bedded down in comfort outside the Crowne Plaza hotel in Christchurch this week in opposition to the appalling conditions factory farmed pigs endure in New Zealand. The early morning demonstration staged by SAFE saw three campaigners dressed as ‘pigs' snuggling up in a comfortable bed to highlight that pigs also deserve comfort, not cruelty.

SAFE Campaign director Hans Kriek told television media covering the protest that the contrast between the farmers' lodgings and those of their factory farmed pigs could not be any greater. Pig farmers attending their annual AGM and conference are indulging themselves in five-star luxury accommodation whilst their pigs suffer in cruel conditions back on the farm.

"This is an industry that treats its animals harshly and cruelly. Instead of focussing on how to improve the welfare of their animals, the conference is only talking about how to increase profits," says Hans. "It is galling to see farmers enjoying good food and accommodation when their pigs suffer in barren concrete pens, lying in their own excrement on cold, hard concrete surfaces."

A public boycott of factory farmed products is the best way to force farmers to change their abhorrent factory farming practices according to Hans.

Check out the TV One news item

SAFE's little-piggy army!

In order to step up its fight against factory pig farming, SAFE has commissioned 15 more model pigs in sow crates to be dispatched to SAFE centres around the country. The SAFEBid! art auction organised by SAFE's promotion manager Amanda Sorrenson and MCd by Outrageous Fortune star Robyn Malcolm raised the necessary funds for these highly effective stall props.

"I am thrilled we are now able to provide all of our active volunteer centres with these model pigs," says campaign director Hans Kriek. "These pigs are a work of art and are amazingly realistic. They are perfect to illustrate the close confinement of sows in a manner easily related to by the public. We receive many comments from people who see them. Most people will never witness the cruelty of a pig factory farm so our model pigs are as close as they will ever come to being exposed to this kind of animal abuse. It is great to see people responding to the pigs and pledging to no longer eat factory farmed pigs."

SAFE television commercial a success!

SAFE's first ever television commercial about the plight of factory farmed pigs has received an enormous response from caring New Zealanders. The emotionally charged 30-second commercial created in house has been screened on TV3 and Sky for the past three weeks. The advert features a factory farmed sow severely confined, unable to move freely. The message is simply "Factory farmed pigs suffer. Help her." The response, where people make a $3 donation by text, has been overwhelming says Campaign Director Hans Kriek.

"We were told not to expect much of a response but within a few weeks of screening almost 6000 caring New Zealanders demonstrated their support towards our campaign to help pigs. We are very heartened by this response and wish to thank everyone involved who helped in the creation and airing of this important advertisement."

Over 22,000 pregnant sows are forced to endure a miserable and appalling existence inside sow stalls. These breeding sows help produce the 700,000 piglets raised for slaughter each year for New Zealand consumers. Factory farmed sows spend most of their pregnant lives in small, metal-barred stalls. They cannot walk or even turn around. They can suffer from depression and bit the bars of their cages with monotonous repetition. The advertisement includes background music written and sung by the talented Flip Grater. Flip is a successful Christchurch singer and songwriter who has supported SAFE since the early 1990's. The song, Where's the Door is from her latest album, Cage for a Song. To hear more of Flip's music visit her site.

SAFE will be re-running the advert between October-November this year. View commercial

Campaign fundraisers

In the last three months SAFE's fantastic volunteers around the country have collected $12,675 in donations from outside supermarkets. The money will be used to purchase further educational and promotional resources for the pig campaign.

Even better news is that SAFE volunteers have raised a further $21,700 in supermarket collections since the 2006 appeal. We can thank our terrific champion collectors in Hamilton for bulk of this amount! There are still some collections happening over the next few months in Whangarei, Palmerston North and Hawke's Bay so if you'd like to help out in those areas, email sacha@safe.org.nz

SAFE's new ‘crown jewel'

"The jewel in the crown for SAFE right now is a life-like scale model of a sow in a stall made by the artists who worked as model makers on Lord of the Rings and King Kong. It's fantastic and so real looking. I can't wait until every branch has one of these pig models and display material for their information stalls. It will compel the people passing to want to help pigs," says Hans.

LovePigs tour visits Greymouth

SAFE campaigners Hans Kriek and Sacha Dowell kick-started the national LovePigs campaign tour in Greymouth recently with a publicity stunt, information stall and public meeting. The action involved one of our local volunteers being confined in a sow stall for two hours, while volunteers handed out information and talked to the public about cruel factory pig farming. A photo and brief article featured on the front page of the Greymouth Evening Star. SAFE campaign officer Sacha Dowell says the public meeting saw a healthy turnout of people and they enlisted a bunch of great new volunteer recruits to the area. Nice one!

Pupils encouraged to love pigs

Last Friday, over 500 school children from Ponsonby Intermediate learnt how they could help pigs on factory farms. Ponsonby Intermediate pupil Isobel invited SAFE to speak to her school to highlight the cruelty of factory farming of pigs in New Zealand.

SAFE's newly appointed Campaign Officer, Laura Cleary, accompanied by Deirdre Sims of Open Rescue, attended the school assembly and were able to display Auckland's newest addition - a one-third scaled model of a sow inside a sow crate.

"It was a great success", says Laura. "The children are preparing for Eco Week and were very interested in the short video which Deirdre showed that highlighted the work of Open Rescue and exposed pig cruelty on New Zealand pig farms".

"We hope that other children will now be as enthusiastic as Isobel and get behind this important cause. We were extremely impressed with Isobel and proud of her initiative to invite us to her school. She is even planning to fundraise towards SAFE's LovePigs campaign, which is fantastic", says Laura.

Isobel became interested in factory farming of pigs while completing a school project. SAFE and Open Rescue are delighted to have had the opportunity to inform the school of the realities of pig farming. SAFE wishes to extend a big thanks to Deirdre for agreeing to speak to the school.

To request a visit to your school or to find out how you can fundraise, email: auckland@safe.org.nz or call: (09) 361 5646.

LovePigs fund raising appeal

Volunteers all over the country are donning appeal gear mid-year to collect money for SAFE's LovePigs campaign. We are aiming to raise $40,000 during July, August and September for campaign materials to raise public awareness of the cruelty involved in factory pig farming.

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers in Whangarei, Hamilton and Wellington who have already collected over $3,000 in the past few weeks! There are more collections planned around the country so if you can collect for a few hours any time during July, August or September, please email sacha@safe.org.nz to volunteer in your area.

Raising the bars!

You can help SAFE achieve its goals by lobbying for improved pig welfare, supporting consumer boycotts and increasing public pressure to help end pig cruelty in New Zealand — to ‘raise the bars’ for pigs!

SAFE wants to:

• Get over 10,000 New Zealanders to pledge they will stop eating factory-farmed pork.

• Encourage at least 100 cafés around the country to pledge they will, given a choice, no longer use pork products cruelly produced in factory farms.

• Convince 10 MPs to become political ambassadors for pigs and who will actively support calls for improved animal welfare legislation in New Zealand.

You can help by sending an e-card against cruelty to your local MP or hand one to your favourite eatery.

Legalised cruelty

A detailed review of the pig welfare code, including a public consultation process, was undertaken between 2001 and 2005 by the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC). As part of this review the government acknowledged that sow stalls and farrowing crates did not meet all of the obligations of New Zealand’s animal welfare legislation. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires that animals must be able to display normal patterns of behaviour.

Thanks to lobbying by SAFE and the RNZSPCA, NAWAC received over 60,000 public submissions calling for an end to sow stalls. Although an earlier draft of the code of welfare proposed to phase out sow stalls, the final code was considerably different. This was after intense lobbying by the pig industry. The latest code now allows for farrowing crates to be used for six weeks and only limits sow stall use to four weeks after mating from 2015 — nine years from now! NAWAC has called for more research about alternatives to stalls and won’t decide whether to phase out sow stalls completely until 2009.

SAFE believes NAWAC’s call for more research into alternative systems is simply a delaying tactic as most New Zealand pig farmers have been successfully using alternatives for years. What’s more, SAFE argues that these alternative, less cruel systems have been found to meet all of the legal animal welfare requirements.

SAFE campaign director Hans Kriek is at a loss as to how a Ministry-appointed advisory committee could conduct themselves in such a way. “NAWAC has abandoned common sense, ignored overseas developments, dismissed public opinion and failed to uphold the principles of the Animal Welfare Act. You have to ask yourself why?” says Hans.