Charlie Pedersen: Farmers know a healthy beast is a profitable one

Charlie Pedersen

Everyone has a moral obligation to treat all animals humanely. It is not acceptable to allow animals to suffer as a result of deliberate ill-treatment, neglect, or poor management practices.

Unfortunately, there is the occasional example when a person's duty of care to his or her animals has fallen below the mark. These cases deserve to be prosecuted through the courts.

But let's not use a sorry example about one Northland farmer (as discussed in Catriona MacLennan's recent Perspectives article headlined "Animal cruelty sentence a joke") to tarnish the entire farmer population of about 40,000.

That is as ridiculous as saying that because a pet owner is cruel to his cat, all cat owners must be guilty as well.

The real tragedy about animal-welfare cases which end in prosecution is that the alarm bells have not rung loudly enough to spark early intervention to fix the problem.

Federated Farmers has an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to respond to on-farm animal-welfare problems together. In these cases, farmer representatives work closely with MAF and the farmer involved. All farmers, whether members of the federation or not, can receive this help.

In many animal-welfare cases, family, financial or human health problems have led to the poor animal welfare. It's been found that the best solution is to work through the issues farmer to farmer with MAF's overview.

With 18,000 members spread over 24 provinces, the federation can call on farmer leaders who have experience in working through these issues. Though faced with a stressful situation, these farmers have expertise and useful techniques and contacts to help them handle any animal-welfare situation.

In the rare event that a prosecution is required, the federation helps MAF achieve what is best for the animals.

But the efforts to protect animals must, and do, start well before any animal-welfare situation arises.

For example, the federation promotes appropriate and practical standards of livestock care. It supports and promotes farmers compliance with animal-welfare legislation and codes of welfare, and advises members of their responsibilities should they witness animal-welfare neglect cases.

Federated Farmers will continue to promote partnerships with other parties interested in animal welfare, such as the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (Nawac). This is a committee of experts that develop codes of practice for animal welfare.

Nawac works with the industry, government agencies and other organisations to develop agreed standards for animal welfare, such as the codes of practice established under the Animal Welfare Act.

It consults on policy, technical standards, development of quality systems and compliance issues; and it seeks informed dialogue and information flow between animal-welfare surveillance agencies, farmers and the federation.

Critics might suggest that farmers see no benefit in looking after their animals.

Maintaining high standards in animal welfare is, first and foremost, good for animals. But these high standards also make economic sense through better productivity and improved access to international markets. There is clear evidence that a healthy animal is a profitable animal.

New Zealand is a major producer and exporter of animals and animal products. As such, farmers and others working with animals always keep in mind the growing domestic and international consumer focus on animal welfare.

The majority of farmers have good reason to be proud of the welfare of their animals. Indeed, they are the first to report farmers who let the industry down.

* Charlie Pedersen, a dairy and beef farmer, is the vice-president of Federated Farmers and a member of Nawac.