Henry Melville
AFTER THE further graphic and disturbing imagery from the egg farm at Oysters Cove, how can the manager overseeing animal welfare standards for the State Government announce publicly that he believes the farm is an exemplary egg producer with no animal welfare breaches? How indeed.
And how is it that the Minister responsible for Animal Welfare Standards, David Llewellyn could immediately provide a convenient explanation for the squalid conditions that Emma Haswell found the near-death hens surviving under last Thursday evening?
Earlier in the week we heard on ABC radio from the DPIW bureaucrat-manager that all was well & happy at Pitts Poultry farm; the farm was meeting all animal welfare and egg industry compliance standards – it was as good, if not better, than other egg farms. He further confused by suggesting that the shocking images taken April 2007 at the farm were past history, irrelevant and merely ‘alleged’ to be connected to this operation
These utterances are extremely serious matters going to the heart of the public’s credibility of important public processes. They call into question the ethics, the due diligence and honesty of this Department.
If the operations at this egg farm are considered acceptable by this desk-bound supremo, then one wonders what he would consider as sub-standard.
Remain outraged by the squalid standards under which hens are forced to produce eggs for human consumption. This must stop NOW!
Is Tas-mania in 2008 still the convict, hard-living colony once called Van Diemen’s Land; a place where suffering, cruelty and exploitation was secretly condoned by well-paid overseers and robber barons – all in the name of ‘progress’ and power.
Has nothing really changed?
