Submission on the Proposed Code of Welfare for Dairy Cattle and Associated Regulations
Federated Farmers is proud of New Zealand’s record on animal welfare, and we strongly support efforts to ensure best practice is followed by all owners and managers of animals, including farmers. This includes enforcement of codes of welfare and animal welfare regulation.
Federated Farmers recognises the value of Codes of Welfare and have approached the development of this submission with the aim of ensuring the updated Code is a useful and workable document that benefits the animals whose welfare it is designed to protect.
Federated Farmers is disappointed that this proposed Code appears to start from the point of view that dairy farmers treat animals poorly just for the sake of profit. This could not be further from the truth as most farmers not only comply with the current minimum standards but exceed them.
There is an imperative that codes of welfare and other regulation of animal welfare must be sensible, practical, and affordable and they must enable the farming of animals to continue without imposing a heavy-handed compliance burden for little or no additional animal welfare benefit.
In Federated Farmers’ view they must be outcome-based and allow flexibility in farm practices and other inputs of production. There also needs to be a clear demarcation between what should be in regulation versus what should be promoted as best practice.
A copy of the full submission can be found to the right
Contact:
Phil Holland
Senior Policy Advisory I 027 285 5265 I
[email protected]