Activist group SAFE vows to do more if animal welfare demands not met

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Activist group SAFE is vowing to place more damaging advertisements about New Zealand's dairy industry in the international press if its demands for animal welfare improvements are not met.

An advertisement ran in Britain's Guardian newspaper at the weekend that accused Kiwi milk of being "contaminated with cruelty".

It followed an investigation by Farmwatch and SAFE that uncovered abuse in the dairy industry, including calves being left for hours in the sun and being kicked and beaten by workers at a slaughterhouse before being killed.

Hidden camera footage was also released.

The investigation and advertisement have sparked an angry response from many farmers, who say their industry has been misrepresented.

SAFE executive director Hans Kriek said it was regrettable that people were upset about the group's tactics, but SAFE was standing by them.

"We're getting a lot of support as well, from a lot of New Zealanders, saying, 'Finally somebody is addressing this issue'," he said.

Kriek said SAFE would meet industry group Dairy NZ and Fonterra next week to discuss its concerns.

"They have ideas on how they can improve things," he said. "They have recognised that there are some serious welfare problems in that industry."

Kriek said the ad campaign had finished, for now.

"The bobby calf season is over and won't start until August next year so the industry has ample chance to put in place measures to prevent mistreatment of animals," he said.

"If we have reason to believe that the cruelty is continuing next year then we will try to expose that and we continue to talk to [international] consumers of New Zealand dairy products."

Dairy NZ chief executive Tim Mackle said many in the industry were extremely upset about SAFE's actions, which came at the end of a tough year for farmers who have been facing financial hardship as a result of the dairy price slump.

"The feedback that I've been getting in the past 24 hours has been turning to despair and anger," he said.

"To have an ad published in the paper in such an unnecessary way - and in a way that grossly misrepresents what we're all about - is just completely irresponsible."

Kriek said the dairy industry had made a mistake in downplaying SAFE's findings.

"We had to show that we mean business," he said. "It's because of this pressure that the industry is now getting together with us ... to try to get this sorted out."

Mackle said the industry accepted that some welfare issues needed addressing.

"Not for a minute are we suggesting that we haven't got some things that we have to go and fix," he said, adding that a lot of work had taken place over the past week, including engaging with the transport industry around issues relating to the transportation of bobby calves.

Federated Farmers dairy chair Andrew Hoggard said there was a problem around a lack of oversight for the 2 per cent of bobby calves that went into the pet food industry.

But farmers were frustrated that SAFE had raised the issue in such a "dramatic fashion".

"There's a lot of frustration," he said.

Hoggard said the industry needed to make a "concerted effort" to explain to consumers in urban areas the realities of dairy farming.