Livestock welfare calls rise in Wairarapa

ON THE JOB: Farm dogs are meant to be lean and keen, say farmers. PHOTO/FILE

More people are reporting concerns about the welfare of Wairarapa livestock, official data shows.

The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) received 57 complaints about Wairarapa farm animal welfare between 2010 and 2014 - with a high of 22 complaints last year.

Over the five-year period, 26 of the complaints related to commercial farms and 28 pertained to lifestyle blocks. The remaining complaints categorised as "other" included the likes of saleyards and transport carriers.

The data - released under the Official Information Act - follows calls by Massey University veterinarian Alan Thatcher for more regulation of the livestock transport industry, as published in the Wairarapa Times-Age on Monday.

Nine Wairarapa welfare complaints resulted in court orders and one owner was prosecuted. Other complaints resulted in verbal advice, education or referrals to other agencies. Up to two outcomes could be recorded for one complaint.

Federated Farmers Wairarapa president Jamie Falloon believed the number of complaints and portion of serious consequences were a reasonable result.

"Ideally you'd have no complaints and no issues but that might be unachievable," he said.

"It's unlikely that people go out and deliberately mistreat their animals like most people don't deliberately mistreat their family pets. I'd just be guessing but I'd say in most cases [of neglect] there was something else going on with the owner like stress or mental health issues."

Mr Falloon expected some complaints were out of genuine concern, while others were due to the complainant not understanding what they were seeing.

"A good case in point is farm dogs. People complain that they look skinny, but it's the difference between a fat dog and a dog which is at working weight.

"You can't expect a fat, unfit dog to do a whole day's work like a sheepdog does.

"In the heart of summer, they burn off a fair amount of energy so you've got to feed them appropriately but they're always going to be pretty lean."

Nationwide, MPI received 2947 complaints about animal welfare between 2010 and 2014.

Commercial farms accounted for 1852 of the complaints, while lifestyle blocks accounted for 785 complaints - an over-representation of complaints, according to MPI.

"Last year, between MPI and the SPCA, we responded to almost 500 complaints involving lifestyle blocks," MPI compliance operations manager Gary Orr said.

Mr Orr also believed many complaints stemmed from a lack of knowledge in basic farming practices.

Just under 100 complaints nationwide resulted in prosecutions, with thousands more resulting in verbal advice, education letters, written warnings, and other "investigation outcomes".

MPI presently found about 27 per cent of complaints were unsubstantiated on inspection.

"With the increasing mobility of New Zealand's population in the pursuit of recreational activities, greater numbers of urban Kiwis are exploring the rural reaches of New Zealand.

"Unfortunately, a lot of these visitors apply their pet standards to production animals, and they can be a little surprised to learn it is not illegal to allow sheep to give birth in the rain, or a chicken farmer doesn't have to muster his free-range chickens into the shed during a storm."

NZME