SPCA supports petition to require imported animal products to meet NZ animal welfare standards

SPCA attended the petition launch event this week, held by Animal Policy International. This petition follows a report, "Closing the Welfare Gap: Why New Zealand Must Apply Its Animal Protection Standards to Imports", released in earlier this year in a collaboration between Animal Policy International, SPCA and the New Zealand Animal Law Association.

The petition aims to close the current legal loophole, which allows imported animal products to come from systems which use farming practices that are illegal in New Zealand, such as battery cages, and sow stalls.

SPCA Chief Scientific Officer Dr Arnja Dale says, “there’s a clear disconnect between our laws and imports. Animals overseas are being kept in conditions that New Zealanders have already clearly rejected, and yet products from those conditions continue to be sold to New Zealand consumers.”

"These are practices like the use of sow stalls, where pigs are trapped in metal cages for their entire pregnancy - which were banned in New Zealand in 2016," says Dr Dale. “And hens trapped in small battery cages that were finally phased out just last year.”

The New Zealand public has made their stance clear on these animal welfare standards, with 83% agreeing that imported animal products should respect the same welfare standards as those applied in New Zealand. Under the current laws the production is simply shifting to countries where there are little to no standards in place.

“The coalition Government has an opportunity to close the welfare gap by extending animal welfare regulations to imports,” says Dr Dale.

The petition aligns with SPCA’s position on animal welfare in trade.

Currently, about two thirds of pork products consumed in New Zealand are imported, many from countries that allow sow stalls. Our Government officials have just returned from India where they have been negotiating a trade deal that could see more animal products imported into New Zealand from farming systems that would be illegal in this country and which undercut our own farmers.

SPCA encourages the public to learn more, and make their voices heard by signing the petition, calling for imports to meet our national animal welfare standards.