23 November 2009
MEDIA RELEASE
MEDIA RELEASE
MEDIA RELEASE
60 Minutes expose ‘The Hidden Truth’
about the plight of the intensively confined sow
Two key points arise from the 60 Minutes expose last night, ‘The Hidden Truth’, on the
inhumane confinement of sows in gestation stalls and farrowing crates.
First, Liam Bartlett’s statement that such confinement and treatment is permitted by the ‘Pig
Code’.
How is this so? Because state animal protection statutes sanction ‘codes of practice’ – usually
favouring the interests of producers over animal welfare – as a defence or exemption from
prosecution under the Act. Such enduring close confinement would ordinarily fall within one
of the state act’s cruelty offences
As such confinement complies with the relevant code of practice, however, the Act does not
apply.
Second, who is responsible for creating these codes: the same people who are responsible
overwhelmingly for the administration and enforcement of animal welfare laws in Australia,
namely, federal and state departments of agriculture. Codes are produced by the self-styled
‘Animal Welfare Committee’ within the Australian Primary Industries Ministerial Council
system (federal and state agriculture ministers). This ‘animal welfare committee’ (with no
animal welfare representation) produces national model codes. These codes are then
incorporated into the state animal protection legal regime.
Panel Chair, Graeme McEwen, said:
In the administration of animal welfare in Australia, federal and state departments of agriculture suffer from
the most obvious conflict of interest. It is because they are in charge of animal welfare that the pig industry is
permitted to treat sows in this manner, or the egg industry for example is permitted to produce eggs from
battery hens.
Further comment: Graeme McEwen, Chair, Barristers Animal Welfare Panel (03)
9225 8901 or 0419 001 212.
The Barristers Animal Welfare Panel comprises some 90 barristers (including some 25 silks
from the commercial and criminal bars) of the Victorian bar and has addressed a national
agenda since its inception some three years ago. It is shortly about to go national as a body
of members from the various state Bars around Australia.
NEWS 
