After the negative press and videos posted about animal mistreatment in New Zealand this past week, those involved in animal agriculture there are working to educate and inform those outside of agriculture.
Less than 4% of animal welfare complaints to the Primary Industries Ministry in the last three years relate to the mistreatment of bobby calves.
Information supplied by MPI showed that of 800 to 900 animal welfare complaints made in each of the last three years, mistreatment of bobby calves represented between 1% and 4% of all complaints, supporting farmer claims abuse was committed by a small minority.
MPI investigated nine complaints of bobby calf treatment in 2013 out of 794 complaints it received, 26 out of 896 in 2014 and from January 1 to August 25 this year, 11 out of 698 complaints.
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MPI did not have data available on the number of cases prosecuted but said it prosecuted 20-30 animal welfare cases a year.
Federated Farmers Dairy section chairman Andrew Hoggard said the figures proved what farmers had been saying since TVNZ aired covert filming of the mistreatment of bobby calves in Waikato by farmers, transport operators and a pet food slaughterhouse.
“The fact there are so few complaints tells you, quite frankly, this is being committed by a minority, notwithstanding that minority needs to be sorted out.”
SAFE executive director Hans Kriek attributed the low number of complaints to organisations such as Fonterra and DairyNZ advising farmers to have calf sheds and cages hidden from the road.
Dairy NZ animal husbandry and welfare manager Chris Leach said the organisation did not make any such recommendation.
Meanwhile, Lincoln University’s professor of trade and environmental economics, Caroline Saunders, said the impact on trade of the footage so far was difficult to judge but animal welfare was important in countries such as Indonesia, China, Japan and the United Kingdom.
The rapid and strong condemnation by farmers of the abusers would have been noted and respected by markets that accepted every population had some bad apples.
She said the bobby calf issue needed to be examined in the same way previous issues such as dairy cow abortion and tail docking were addressed.
Hoggard said MPI should have immediately been notified of the animal welfare issues shown in the film. If he had seen calves left stressed or dying in a crate on the side of the road he would have gone to MPI.
“It does show what their (SAFE) motivation is and it isn’t to fix an animal welfare issue in NZ but to hurt a whole industry.”
He was surprised the wider public did not realise that for a mammal to start producing milk it needed to first get pregnant but said publicising the removal of new-born calves from cows appeared to be SAFE’s primary agenda of advocating a vegan lifestyle.
“I would have thought half the population would know how a mammary gland worked.
“This is news to people?
“It shows urban NZ is quite removed from rural realities.”
Hoggard said the dairy industry had for the last year been looking at welfare issues including ensuring surplus bobby calves were treated like any other calf and shown the utmost care.
“It does show what their (SAFE) motivation is and it isn’t to fix an animal welfare issue in NZ but to hurt a whole industry.”
Firstlight Foods was making Wagyu beef genetics available to the dairy industry to make calves more valuable but Hoggard said his own situation highlighted the dilemma.
He used Jersey genetics over his heifers to eliminate calving issues but it left him with small bobby calves for which there was little demand.
To alleviate one animal welfare issue he created the problem of finding an outlet for small calves while leaving calves on cows during milking would create further welfare issues.
Meanwhile, MPI deputy director general Scott Gallacher said an animal welfare investigation was launched on September 14, immediately after it received a copy of the FarmWatch footage.
Gallacher said he was appalled by the footage but added it was not representative of NZ dairy farming and that dealing with bobby calves was an issue for every dairy farming country.
By: Neal Wallace
Source: Farmers Weekly News