| A message from Mike King. Please forward to help raise awareness about the plight of pigs in New Zealand:
I (Mike King) visited what I now know is a typical NZ pig farm and saw the disgusting conditions the poor pigs were living in. What I witnessed was absolutely disgusting. The pigs who have been stuck in these crates for YEARS were chewing on the sow crate bars, frothing at the mouths and either highly distressed, deeply depressed or dead. Since the footage was televised on TV1′s the Sunday program, the Pork Industry Board has gone into overdrive to try and smooth over their shameful farming practices including hiring a multi million dollar PR firm to try and regain the public confidence. They have also spread malicious lies and rumours about what happened the night we visited the farm in Levin which I will address now. Pork Industry Board (PIB) MK: Bollocks! There were 5 of us who entered the premises. Me and a friend, plus 3 nice everyday pakeha kids who are hardly terrorists. I met with them at their house before we went to Levin and can assure you they are just your typical animal loving New Zealanders who want the barbaric pig farming practices to stop! PIB: They terrorised the pigs with cattle prods to get them into a highly agitated state. MK: Bollocks! The animals were like that when we got there. PIB: The pigs heard them coming and got excited because they thought they were about to be feed MK: Bollocks! We parked right next to State Highway 1 about 3/4′s of kilometer from the farm. As we got out of the car the first thing that struck me was the smell, an overwelming amonia like pungent odour that stuck to your clothes and invaded your senses. The second thing the struck me was the noise. The pigs were highly agitated before we got there. I have no doubt that the pigs get excited when they hear people coming as the would assume they are about to be fed but what I’m saying is, they were already agitated before we got there and they couldn’t have heard our car as it was too far away from he farm. PIB: They teased the animals with food by placing it just out of the animals reach. MK: This is a blatant lie. They didn’t even know what farm or night we visited so the had no idea we were even there. And surely if there was any evidence of food being left on the ground th farmer would have seen it the next morning and made a note of it? So when the story broke he would have been able to catergorically state what day we were there! He didn’t and he couldn’t because the Pork Board made that story up! PIB: They smeared the bars with food to make the pigs chew the bars. MK: Another blatant lie. Did we also feed them soap to make them froth at the mouth? Did we put eyedrops in their eyes to give them a stunned glazed look? Did we deliberately put the scabs on their arses and pressure sores on their sides to add effect to what we were filming? Did we call in our friends from Weta workshop to CGI long toe nails onto the pigs to make it look like the pigs had been in those crates for years and had grown those toe nails because they have never walked a day in their lives? Did we by some act of god deform the legs of some of the pigs to make it look like they have been so limited in their movements that their legs grew up buckled? The answer to all those questions is an emphatic NO! They were like that because the have been stuck undersized sow crates their whole lives! Not the 6 weeks the PIB would have you believe, THEIR WHOLE LIVES! YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS!!! PIB: Mike King is out to destroy the pork industry because his contract was ended. MK: Bollocks! I started investigating the NZ pig farming industry after a friend of mine sent me an article about pigs which had a link to youtube footage “A typical nz pig farm” I was disgusted by what I saw and at the time was STILL IN THE EMPLOY OF THE NZ PORK INDUSTRY and had no idea they were not going to renew my contract. It has never been my intention to destroy the Pork Industry or ruin the reputation of Pig Farmers, which is why when the show went to air we refused to name and shame the farmer involved. On Close up the night after the story broke we said “That the farmer who’s farm we visited had not broken any rules and was operating within the law!” Our beef has never been with farmers or the Pork Board for that matter. Our beef has been solely with the Minister of Agriculture who has the power to change the law and we are demanding he outlaws crate farming when the law comes up for review in the next two months! Join now if you are against this inhumane practice. Don’t forget to invite all your friends! Email Minister of Agriculture DAVID CARTER calling for an immediate alteration of the animal welfare code: david.carter@parliament.govt.nz Contact Info
New Zealand Open Rescue http://www.youtube.com/NZOpenRescue http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzopenrescue/ NZ Open Rescue takes Mike King on an investigation into an intensive piggery. |
Article by Jill Singer, Herald Sun Australia
July 09, 2009 12:00
As a consumer I find them misleading. As a woman I find them patronising. And as a fan of Sam Neill I find them disappointing.
In case you haven’t heard, the Meat and Livestock Association’s latest generic television advertisement for red meat is being launched this Sunday.
It features Sam Neill making friends with an ape called Dennis and explaining to him that you need to eat red meat for your brain to evolve.
Sam and Dennis then get down and dance the “butcher boogie” together.
MLA chief executive David Thomason predicts the ad will be a big hit with consumers, and help get their message across that humans are meant to eat red meat. How I hope he is proven wrong.
Much as I enjoy eating meat, I don’t like being fed bull, and the MLA’s advertising has been full of it for many years.
We’ve seen Sam Neill explain that craving red meat is instinctive behaviour, that red meat is nutritionally superior to chicken and that red meat is an essential part of human nutrition.
Sam Kekovich and Laurie Lawrence are other hairy-chested types who have been paid to feed us similar tripe.
There’s nothing new in the MLA’s propaganda; red meat has long been associated with masculinity. Hence the evolution of the catering tradition for crowds – beef for men and chicken for the ladies.
Even now, when most of us hunt down our food in supermarket aisles, the MLA wants to keep us trapped in the distant, gendered past.
By using traditionally blokey men to tell us they need meat, the MLA is sending a message to Australian women. It knows that women still carry the “basket power” – they do most of the shopping – and it’s our job to look after our menfolk.
The facts are that we face greater problems from excessive consumption of red meat than from eating too little of it.
The statement that red meat is an essential part of our diet is a lie. It is a more essential part of a maggot’s diet that a human’s.
There are countless studies proving foods such as fish are a superior form of protein than red meat.
The MLA sneakily drops into its ads that red meat three to four times a week is essential for good nutrition, but moderate consumption is not its real aim.
Increasing the sale of red meat is, full stop.
Just last month it launched a “new experience” for shared eating in the form of a steak called the “tomahawk” that weighs 1.5-2.5kg – the largest rib eye steak in Australia.
Also galling is that Sam Neill is allowing himself to be demeaned for financial gain.
Neill is a farmer as well as a fine actor. He grows pigs and chickens, truffles, saffron and pinot noir grapes. His own farming practices see him show a preference for organic and sustainable forms of production.
Sam Neill’s little farm is a million miles from how most of our red meat is produced.
Obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer are serious matters – as are animal and environmental welfare, and the need for truth in advertising.
If we want to do the right thing by our families, we should teach the MLA a harsh lesson and give red meat the flick for as long as they keep up their shoddy advertising.
This should go without saying, but the best thing you can do to reduce cruelty to animals on factory-farms is to become a vegetarian. It’s an easy way to make sure that not a single animal is abused for your food, it’s good for your health, and it is better for the environment. If you care about animals, this should be a no-brainer.
- excerpt from GoVeg.com
Sign the Project Shark Fin Petition and Help Stop the Slaughter of Sharks in NZ for the Shark Fin Soup Industry. the Petition above and Help Stop the Slaughter of Sharks in NZ for the Shark Fin Soup Industry.
An official MAF report reveals current pig welfare legislation is strongly at odds with the views of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture and the majority of the New Zealand public on pig welfare.
The MAF investigative report has cleared an intensive piggery, which was exposed on the Sunday programme last month, of any breach of the law.
Pig welfare campaigners say the 23-page report states the Levin pig farm, owned by a leading New Zealand pig farmer and former director of the New Zealand Pork Industry Board, provides “very high” animal care and husbandry standards and that no offences were observed.
MAF’s findings come as no surprise to SAFE, the group behind the exposé of the farm.
“The report merely emphasises how much our animal welfare law is out of touch with the thinking of most New Zealanders,” says SAFE campaign director Hans Kriek.
“The entire nation was shocked at the appalling conditions pigs are being farmed in. The exposé prompted Prime Minister John Key to say that he found the images of crated pigs “very, very disturbing.” The Minister of Agriculture, David Carter, said he was ‘equally disturbed by the images shown and found them unacceptable.”’
In the report the Minister’s own officials have now told him that in fact these terrible conditions are perfectly legal.
“SAFE believes that the Minister has little choice but to change the law to ensure that practices he and the rest of the nation consider unacceptable are no longer allowed. The Minister must use the upcoming review of the pig code of welfare to introduce a ban on the use of pig crates. Anything short of that would be a national disgrace,” says Mr Kriek.
In the meantime SAFE calls on consumers to play their part.
“The pigs shown in the Sunday programme are still inside those crates today. They will still be there tomorrow. It is likely sows will still be in pig crates for many years to come unless consumers boycott factory farmed pig products immediately,” says Mr Kriek.
For more information contact Hans Kriek on 027 446 2711.
New product-testing procedures adopted by a key international organization will save thousands of animals a year from a painful death. At a recent meeting in Paris, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development approved several new or revised test guidelines that will replace animals or reduce the number killed in common toxicity tests. These guidelines will become the standard for companies in many countries to follow.
PCRM scientists have held the secretariat position of the International Council on Animal Protection in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programmes (ICAPO) since 2006, and PCRM’s work has increased the visibility and impact of ICAPO’s activities at the OECD. That has translated into direct improvements in the lives of animals in laboratories.
As Secretariat, PCRM is responsible for acting as a direct liaison between OECD officials and the animal protection groups that make up ICAPO. These groups mirror OECD member countries geographically, and all share PCRM’s mission to replace the use of animals in toxicity testing. While ICAPO cannot officially vote, ICAPO provides expert advice to OECD member countries on alternatives to and the protection of animals in laboratories.
ICAPO has the ability to comment on draft test guidelines and other documents related to toxicity testing, both with animals and with new alternative methods, and to nominate scientific experts to attend numerous meetings on specific issues throughout the year.
Once a year, the Test Guidelines Programme meets to approve draft test guidelines and other documents. PCRM toxicologist Kristie Sullivan, M.P.H., attended with two other ICAPO member representatives and reports that this meeting was one of the most promising ever for animals in laboratories.
For the assessment of severe eye irritation, two in vitro (test tube) guidelines were approved that can be used to screen out chemicals most harmful to the eyes, sparing rabbits from the notorious Draize test, which involves applying a substance to an animal’s eye. The delegates also approved two other in vitro test guidelines: one for measuring a chemical’s potential to damage a cell’s genetic material and one for measuring a chemical’s potential to mimic estrogen activity. These tests are performed using human cell lines.
In addition, the delegates approved a new acute inhalation test guideline that will kill 55 to 85 percent fewer animals overall, or between 22 and 34 per test, than the current test guideline. “While PCRM is pushing hard for the validation of a nonanimal approach to inhalation toxicity assessment, in the meantime, this new guideline could save thousands of animals each year from a painful death,” Ms. Sullivan says.
More nonanimal test guidelines are in the work plan for the next few years, as the delegates agreed to work to approve nine more in vitro tests for skin irritation, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity screening, and endocrine disruption.
The new test guidelines are set to be published in early fall 2009, after ratification by the OECD Council. The OECD has also just published an updated table of work plan items related to animal welfare, which can be viewed on the OECD public Web site:
As diabetes drugs such as Avandia are being linked to dangerous side effects, PCRM is providing evidence and education on the power of a low-fat vegan diet to treat and prevent type 2 diabetes. Last month, PCRM published diabetes studies in two major nutrition journals—and PCRM nurse practitioner Caroline Trapp was a finalist for a prestigious American Association of Diabetes Educators award.
In a 74-week clinical trial in May’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, study participants on a low-fat vegan diet showed dramatic improvement in four disease markers: blood sugar control, cholesterol reduction, weight control, and kidney function. The randomized, controlled trial is a milestone in diabetes research because previous studies had collected data for six months or less.
The second paper, a scientific review of observational and interventional studies appearing in May’s Nutrition Reviews, shows that vegan and vegetarian diets are consistently associated with lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, and overweight. Both studies are authored by nutrition researcher Neal Barnard, M.D., David J.A. Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., and other doctors and dietitians with the Washington Center for Clinical Research, the George Washington University, and the University of Toronto.
“A low-fat vegan diet has proved its staying power as one of the most effective long-term treatments for type 2 diabetes,” says Dr. Barnard. “Study participants on the vegan diet experienced dramatic improvements during the first phase. A year later, blood sugar, cholesterol, and body weight were still at healthier levels. The vegan diet works, and people can stick with it over the long run.”
The vegan diet represents a major departure from standard diabetes diets because it places no limits on calories, carbohydrates, or portions. Participants can eat to satiety and still experience weight loss, lower cholesterol, and other benefits.
But conducting research and publishing findings on the link between diet and diabetes is just the first step in reversing diabetes rates that have climbed rapidly in recent years. PCRM also provides education—from continuing medical education credits to the Get Healthy Club message board—on these findings to help the more than 20 million Americans who have diabetes.
In recognition of education initiatives like these—and for her “contribution to diabetes education through dedication and innovation in the daily practice of patient care”—Caroline Trapp, M.S.N., C.D.E., PCRM director of diabetes education and care, was recently honored as a finalist for this year’s American Association of Diabetes Educators’ Diabetes Educator of the Year award.
To learn more about PCRM’s diabetes research and resources, visit www.PCRM.org/Diabetes.
Recently New Zealand Open Rescue saved another two piglets from a lifetime of caged suffering. These two new girls were rescued from a typically disgusting intensive pig farm during an investigation. The rescued girls have gone to live with LouLou and Lola (the piglets we saved last year in honor of Mother’s Day).
LouLou and Lola are doing really well since their rescue. They’ve grown quite a lot but they still have the same personalities as when they were tiny rescued piglets. Lola (from the bathing scene in the Mother’s Day video) is still quite shy and gentle and LouLou is still really outgoing with an ‘in your face’ attitude.
Their mum tells us that their favourite thing to do is play soccer together with an old soccer ball. They spend hours playing together in a muddy wallow butting the ball backwards and forwards to each other with their noses. The games can get quite elaborate and competitive we’re told!
All of the girls spend most of their days roaming an apple orchard together munching on the apples that are scattered all over the ground. They live happily with a variety of other rescued animals including calves and ex-battery hens.
The new girls have been named Hannah and Montana (not by us!) and have settled into their new home really well.
Please remember that while Open Rescue can save the lives of a few animals, YOU personally can help to save the lives of many, many more. Use your consumer power and say no to pork. By not financially supporting the pork industry, you are directly helping to stop the suffering.
Visit Open Rescue’s flickr page to see photos of LouLou, Lola, Hannah and Montana
Visit Open Rescue’s You Tube page to watch our 2008 Mother’s Day piglet rescue video
New Zealand Open Rescue
PO Box 37612
Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.youtube.com/NZOpenRescue
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzopenrescue/
NZ Open Rescue takes Mike King on an investigation into an intensive piggery.
Watch the Mike King video:
According to a new study, fat from red meat and dairy products is associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer. As part of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study, researchers followed and analyzed the diets of more than 525,000 participants to determine whether there is an association between dietary fat and pancreatic cancer. This same study found no association between plant-food fat and pancreatic cancer.
Thiébaut ACM, Jia L, Silverman DT, et al. Dietary fatty acids and pancreatic cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009;101:1001-1011.
For information about nutrition and health, please visit P.C.R.M.
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