Following the recent publicity over welfare issues in pig farming, the Pork Industry has announced plans to carry out a nationwide animal welfare audit.

The audit will check every commercial pig farm in New Zealand. Nationwide welfare audit aims to tackle concerns. Chief executive of New Zealand Pork, Sam McIvor says the industry also plans to engage with the government when it reviews the Pig Welfare Code and investigate better product labelling.
'We believe that a focus on the way we produce New Zealand pork will also help show the consumer that the 700,000 kilograms of imported pork and pork products arriving in New Zealand every week are produced under framing systems that are not as animal friendly as ours.
'Although this is not the main reason why we are taking these steps we do feel it is important for consumers to understand how hard our producers are working to create products that are not only price competitive and of a high quality but are of known provenance.”
The move has drawn a favourable response from Royal New Zealand SPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger who says it's a great day for pigs and a great day for compassionate and responsible consumers.
'We will be watching with interest how the pork industry now implements its commitment to transparency and to animal welfare and we look forward to inputting into its new, on-farm auditing system.”
The SPCA has developed its own ‘Blue Tick' label, to identify pork, bacon or ham produced without the use of either farrowing crates, sow stalls or other forms of cruelty. The ‘Blue Tick', which also appears on eggs from cage free systems, where hens are housed in barns or free to range, is an easily recognised assurance of humane production. Only producers that are willing to submit to regular detailed audits will be considered for the tick.