Economy
Intensive farming must stop. Pitts charges dropped
JON AYLING
Intensive farming is now recognised by the WHO as a practice that must be abandoned if we are to reduce the chance of future pandemics.
NICK McKim’s recent call for the Tasmanian government to ban the intensive farming of animals has the capacity to not only dramatically improve animal welfare but also serves to reduce the risk of Tasmanians becoming exposed to zoonotic diseases, which are known to breed in hotbeds such as battery farms of pigs or chickens.
As the world now waits for further waves of H1N1 to possibly hit with far greater virulence and morbidity rates, a political decision to change our current methods of animal production could not be more appropriate. Intensive farming is now recognised by the WHO as a practice that must be abandoned if we are to reduce the chance of future pandemics.
Leaving aside growth promotion effects, Australia currently pumps over 350 tonnes of antibiotics into agricultural animals for a very good reason. The down side of this practice is that resistance to these retrospectively acting antibiotics develops in the animals, continually new strains develop, and there is now mounting evidence indicating that this resistance is being transferred to humans.
The 1997 WHO report, “The Medical Impact of Antimicrobial use in Food Animals,” indicated that transferral of resistance can occur by direct contact with animals, eating meat or contaminated water or even the transfer of genes between animals and humans.
With 11 of the 12 current lethal global diseases originating in animals, and an unprecedented 30 new diseases appearing in the last 30 years with similar links to agriculture, for the Tasmanian government to refuse to ban intensive farming would not only be irresponsible but places in question the value of the lives of all Tasmanians in relation to industry.
Meanwhile, Who is the pig farmer?
PETER
The Examiner – a search for ‘cruelty’ yields this:
Animal cruelty charges
08 May 09 | A North-East man has been charged with a string of animal cruelty offences after a police investigation in March. The man is due to appear at a sitting of the Launceston Magistrates Court at Scottsdale on Tuesday. The man was charged with several… Unfortunately it’s pay-for-view at The Examiner …
There are several intensive farming businesses in the North-East … one got a $200,000 industry development grant recently.
…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/11/2566365.htm
BATTERY HEN CRUELTY CHARGES DROPPED
(Picture caption: Battery hens in cages at Pitt Poultry farm Tasmania)
Mr Pitt’s lawyer said his client was disappointed charges were brought against him in the first place. (Animal welfare activists)
Charges of animal cruelty against the owner of a battery hen farm in southern Tasmania have been dropped.
Nicholas Pitt did not appear in the Magistrates Court.
He was facing 18 counts of causing pain to an animal, and one count of looking after an animal in a way that was likely to result in pain and suffering.
The charges date back to 2007 and 2008, when animal welfare activists broke into Pitts Poultry and filmed the hens inside.
Today all charges were dismissed by Magistrate Olivia McTaggart.
Outside court Mr Pitt’s lawyer Neil Readett said his client was obviously relieved but disappointed charges were brought against him in the first place.
He said it had been a difficult time for Mr Pitt and his family.
Stateline transcript
Transcript
Pig Cruelty
Broadcast: 08/05/2009
Reporter: Airlie Ward
AIRLIE WARD, PRESENTER: The Premier David Bartlett wants Tasmania to be the fresh food supplier of Australia.
But film taken inside a northern Tasmanian piggery is unlikely to be the image he wants to portray. The operator has been charged with animal cruelty offences and is due to appear in court next week.
The piggery is one of Tasmania’s biggest and is also a supplier to the self proclaimed fresh food people, supermarket giant Woolworths.
The activist who broke into the farm was told by the RSPCA they wouldn’t inspect the farm, so she called the police and told them she’d trespassed. A warning, the pictures in this story are disturbing. We’ve chosen not to use the worst of them and pixelated the others to properly represent the condition of some of the animals.
EMMA HASWELL, ANIMAL ACTIVIST: She’s absolutely infested with maggots. She can’t move. She’s lying in faeces, mud, and maggots. I have never imagined that I would ever find an animal in this condition. She’s being eaten alive.
AIRLIE WARD: Two years ago, animal welfare campaigner Emma Haswell broke into a battery hen farm. Now she’s turned her attention to the pig industry.
EMMA HASWELL: The sows that couldn’t move were so desperate for water they were stretching their necks out into the drain, as I poured water into the drain they were licking it up.
There was blood dripping from the underneath of one sow There was a sow that couldn’t bear any weight on her left front leg because of the swelling from what looked like an abscess or I’m not sure what it was, but her – that was her front left leg – her front right leg also had an abscess on it so she didn’t want to bear weight on that either. There were what looked like tumours on pigs, on their spines and on the back of them. It was… it was a living hell for animals.
etc here:
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/tas/content/2006/s2564758.htm