Animal-safety activists critical of pig-care code

New Zealand Pork's on-farm pig-care audit will label products from sow-stall farms as "welfare approved", critics say.

NZ Pork said the new, compulsory audit would measure stockmanship, animal health and wellbeing.

However, Save Animals from Exploitation (Safe) campaign director Hans Kriek said that differed from industry promises for labelling based on farm-production methods.

"This will see the most intensive farms and free-range farms all labelled `welfare approved'," Kriek said.

"How can a pig have welfare when it cannot even turn around in a stall?"

A proposed industry code limits the use of farrowing crates to four weeks from the date the code is issued and limits the use of sow stalls to four weeks from December 2012. It suggests a 2017 phase-out of stalls.

The industry believes the 0.6-metre by 2m metal-barred sow stalls are necessary to stop pregnant pigs fighting for food, water and space.

NZ Pork chief executive Sam McIvor said the audit was about identifying those who failed to meet the benchmark, making improvements and responding to consumers wanting an independent assessment of pig farming.

However, it did not limit sow-stall use, or the periods sows stayed in stalls or farrowing crates.

The audit includes Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) input.

SPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger said the agency opposed the use of stalls and crates.

"But by sitting at the table, we may not get the sows out of stalls faster, but at least they will be better looked after while they are there," Kippenberger said.

McIvor said about half the country's 360 pig farms did not use sow stalls or farrowing crates, while 10 to 15 per cent of the remaining farmers used them for sows' 112 to 114-day gestation period.

"Most producers accept using sow stalls for four weeks is best practice, but the jury is out on going from four weeks to zero," he said.

However, a major Australian pork producer is shifting its 45,000 sows from stalls to group housing.

Rivalea managing director Paul Pattison said the expensive move was based on commercial reasoning.

"There is no point trying to defend a production system which, in the eyes of the consumer, is indefensible."

National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee chairman Dr John Hellstrom said most New Zealanders viewed sow stalls as wrong, but the industry was resisting change.

He expected the draft code to be before Agriculture Minister David Carter by September.

- © Fairfax NZ News