SAFE talk

Cruelty free on a budget

Posted: May 2, 2013 in Animal experiments
Tags: animal rights, animal testing, animal welfare, animals, compassion, cosmetic testing, cosmetics, cruelty, lifestyle

11 March was a historic date – it marked the day that the European Union implemented its landmark ban on selling animal-tested cosmetics. Please join SAFE in calling for New Zealand to urgently do the same!

In the meantime, we need to be proactive ourselves – but how do you make sure you’re not hurting animals whilst being mindful of a small budget? We all love a bit of luxury in our lives, but sometimes cost can be a concern for many of us. The great news is that cruelty-free products are easier than ever to find and you really don’t have to spend a fortune! Here are just a few of my favourite ‘not tested on animals’, SAFE Shopper budget buys that you can find locally or order online.

If you are ever unsure about which brands are not tested on animals, SAFE makes it easy for you with SAFE Shopper, an online searchable list and downloadable booklet of products available in New Zealand. Check it out at safeshopper.org.nz!

Lush
We love Lush at SAFE. Not only do they sell great products, they have a fantastic history of campaigning actively against cosmetic animal testing. As anyone who has walked past a Lush store knows, it all smells amazing too! I especially love the solid perfumes at $10.90 and their solid shampoo bars that seem to last forever. Order online or buy in-store.

E.L.F. Cosmetics
Until now we had to make do with ordering Eyes Lips Face products from Australia but now E.L.F. has their own New Zealand website. With an all-vegan range and eyeliners and lipsticks for just $5, it’s not to be missed! You can also still order from Elf Australia.

Nature’s Organics
Natures Organics sells a range of shower gels, shampoos and conditioners that are organic and vegan, use plant-based packaging – AND are only around $6 a bottle in The Warehouse and supermarkets like Countdown.

Ro-Vie Cosmetics
Ro-Vie Cosmetics sells gorgeous products that are vegan and contain no nasty chemicals. Although slightly more pricey at $20 for an eye shadow, they promise to last for one year with every-day application. Bargain!

ecostore
I love ecostore products. Especially their household range which start at just $6 for washing powder which lasts 64 washes! Available to buy online, in wholefoods stores and supermarkets.

For even more thriftiness, check out SAFE’s ever-growing DIY Cosmetics Pinterest board.

Why not post your favourite SAFE Shopper beauty finds in the comments below? Happy shopping!

Mandy Carter

Campaign Manager

Pig Factory-Farming Cruelty in New Zealand: four years on

Posted: April 24, 2013 in Pigs, Stop Factory Farming

It’s been four years since SAFE’s campaign against the factory farming of pigs led to the Pork Board’s own spokesperson, comedian Mike King, very publicly turning his back on promoting pork products. The campaign was a major triumph resulting in a ban on sow stalls.

Real change was achieved, but with new footage of appalling conditions on a Canterbury pig farm just released, are pigs actually better off?

Pork promoter to animal champion

Back in 2009 Mike featured regularly on ads encouraging Kiwis to eat more pork – and he’d been doing so successfully for seven years. After being contacted by SAFE, visiting a farm and being shown the horrors of factory pig farming Mike was absolutely sickened and disgusted. He agreed to join SAFE in exposing the cruel practices he’d seen. The subsequent public outcry forced the government to address the issue, eventuating in a ban on sow stalls.

However – it’s all too easy to now be complacent and assume everything is resolved. And this is what the industry wants you to believe. But for pigs, the horror is NOT over.

Whilst the ban was a fantastic result and will result in improved welfare for pigs, the ban does not begin until 2016, and even after that date the new regulations will still allow other cruel practices such as farrowing crates and barren concrete fattening pens. Our infographic breaks it down:

New footage shows more suffering

The NZ Pork Board has been trying to reassure consumers about their animal welfare concerns by launching a ‘Pig Care’ accreditation programme but this programme is no more than an internal audit to ensure farmers are adhering to the inadequate standards set in the pig welfare code.

New footage recently shot at a ‘Pig Care’ accredited Canterbury pig farm shows in horrifying detail how the suffering of pigs in New Zealand is very much an ongoing issue.

The conditions investigators filmed show mother pigs in pens so small they are unable even to turn around or properly care for their babies. They can only sit, stand or lie down. Sows are kept in these tiny cages for several weeks whilst nursing their young – as in sow stalls, they lead a miserable existence unable to express their natural behaviours.

The footage also shows that nothing has changed for pigs raised to be slaughtered – they are still crammed in dark, barren, concrete ‘fattening’ pens. Pigs are filmed lying in their own urine, and faeces, showing injuries and signs of lameness. In one scene a dead and rotting pig is left in a filthy pen crammed with other pigs.

Kept in miserable and heartbreaking conditions, for such intelligent animals this life is one of torture.

Legal Cruelty

Shockingly, the conditions on the Canterbury farm are unfortunately legal and typical of the industry.

While all overseas pork imports can be assumed to be factory-farmed, and so to be avoided, it is clear that the majority of New Zealand pork is not much better. The bottom line is that the 100% NZ Pork brand cannot be relied on for high welfare standards. Watch now to discover why it is important to still boycott all factory-farmed products, and why the suffering of pigs must never be forgotten.

Why boycott?

Consumer boycotts can make a HUGE difference. Companies are forced to make a change if people stop buying.

The most powerful thing you can do to help these pigs is to keep boycotting all factory farmed pork. Share with your friends and family and encourage them not to support cruelty also.

Find out what more you can do.

Mandy Carter, Campaign Manager

Are free-range hens really free?

Posted: March 20, 2013 in SAFE
Tags: animal rights, animal sanctuary, animal welfare, battery cages, egg alternatives, egg industry, eggs, free range, hens, layer hens, New Zealand, SAFE

The following article is by SAFE guest blogger Shawn Bishop, who runs an animal sanctuary in Matakana that rehabilitates injured native birds and offers a safe, loving home to a variety of animals.

Through an arrangement with farmers Shawn has rescued many battery hens who, due to being at the end of their ‘useful life’ at just 18 months of age, would otherwise be killed. Just recently, Shawn was involved in a rescue of free-range hens. Here she discusses the shock reaction some people experienced at seeing the terrible state of the free-range birds.

Rescued – to a new life

The hen rescue in February (2013) was a success, in that we were able to bring 97 hens away with us. However, many of them are in a terrible physical state. A visitor this morning cried when she saw them. It may shock you to learn that these are free-range hens, not battery hens.

The dominant ones look OK, but the majority have feather loss or raw areas where they’ve been pecked due to the intensive nature of even free-range farms.

The truth is, intensive farming is concentration camp farming, whether they are in cages or not.

Although free-range animals may have a comparatively better life than caged hens, you can see for yourself that these hens have suffered. As SAFE puts it:

“All commercial farming systems have some form of cruelty inherent in the system – for example, most animal husbandry practices cause stress or pain and, of course, no farm animal will ever live out its natural life. Any kind of animal farming is not done in the interest of the animals themselves and causes suffering for them. They are bred solely for profit.”

With millions of unwanted male chicks (from all industries) also being ground up alive in New Zealand it’s easy to despair.

When will we learn? All this suffering for the temporary pleasure of a cheap egg.

The hens we were able to rescue will go through a period of rehabilitation and healing, and then be adopted out to good, permanent homes.

Free Range Concerns

I know many people will feel extreme dismay and discouragement at these images. I see this so often that I thought it was important to reveal the truth behind many free-range eggs.

Of course we rescue the worst – but the truth is that this is all too common. Many people asked where this happened, so here’s another shock: the independent free-range farm we rescued from is actually a ‘good’ one, compared to others! Consider this:

The farm from which we rescued these hens has just over 1000 hens per barn.
In comparison the new free-range farm near us has 7,500 hens per barn and the SPCA Blue Tick allows 4000 per barn.
The welfare regulations and the SPCA Blue Tick criteria allow 10 hens per square metre on a free-range farm. That’s packed! This farm has six per square metre, almost half that density and you’ve seen the state our new hens are in.
The main egg companies require that all laying hens are replaced (i.e. killed) by 18 months. And they do NOT allow rescues. This farmer does.

So your target isn’t this farm per se, it’s the bigger companies that do the minimum allowed by law, to spend less on welfare and make more money. I hear you ask in frustration, “So what do I do?! I thought I was avoiding cruelty by buying free range eggs!” Well, there ARE several positive things you can do.

Cruelty Free Eggs?

We don’t want people thinking they might as well buy any eggs since cruelty-free cannot be assured, so here are some ideas on how to avoid the cruelty of ALL intensive egg production

Stop using eggs. There are a million recipes for great baking and food without eggs. Try visiting Go Veg, Chef In You or Cruelty Free Recipes. If you can’t stop completely, reduce as much as you can.
If you want to use eggs but want them to be guaranteed cruelty-free, then get a small coop and keep a couple of pet hens in your backyard. Even in the city and suburbs of Auckland you’re allowed to have up to six hens. They make great pets (who’d have thought it, but it’s true!!) and you’ll have healthy happy eggs as a bonus. You can even adopt 18-month-old rescued ex-battery or ex-free range hens from rescue/rehab centres. We’re organising them all over the country, and they’ll soon be posted on The NZ Hen Welfare Trust facebook page.
If you can’t have hens of your own, find someone who does. Many people have pet hens who produce more eggs than they need, and they’d be happy to sell you some to help pay for the feed for their hens.

Thank you for caring. For more information check out SAFE’s infographic and follow the Animal Sanctuary on Facebook.

Shawn Bishop, Animal Sanctuary

The true scandal of horsemeat

Posted: February 20, 2013 in Racing, SAFE
Tags: animal rights, animal welfare, animals, cruelty, horse racing, horsemeat, horses, meat, New Zealand, racing, SAFE

The discovery of horsemeat labelled as beef in burgers and ready-made meals in the UK and parts of Europe is the scandal that keeps on giving with major supermarkets and fast food joints like Burger King now involved.

The story has also hit headlines in New Zealand with media pondering whether the same thing could happen here. The Herald reports, “It isn’t illegal to hide horsemeat in food in New Zealand, under the generic label ‘meat’. This is a significant loophole, and means that consumers who eat pies or sausages, for example, could unknowingly be consuming horsemeat.”

It seems some of us share the same dietary taboos as the Brits and would be horrified at being duped into eating something considered unsavoury. But why the double standards ? Why is horsemeat so unpalatable compared to that from other equally hooved and intelligent animals like cows and pigs (who are, incidentally, cleverer than your dog or three-year-old child). And aren’t we missing another important point in all this? – That of the welfare of the horses? Why are so many ending up at the slaughterhouse – even in New Zealand?

Whether horsemeat is being mislabelled here or not, there’s a bigger scandal already happening – one with links to the racing industry and shrouded in secrecy.

Down in the depths of the South Island lies the little known ‘Clover Exports Limited’ (surely a cruel pun on ‘putting a horse out to clover’), the only horse slaughterhouse in New Zealand licensed to export horsemeat “for human consumption”. Horses, mainly rejects from the racing industry, are being killed at Clover Exports and eaten in Europe – and New Zealand. Last year The Herald told how Gore is often the destination for New Zealand racing industry thoroughbreds who don’t perform. In an industry driven by profit, when animals can no longer make money their days are numbered. They’re cruelly discarded and stacked into cattle trucks for the arduous journey to slaughter – which can often take many days. In 2011, 1962 horses were slaughtered at Clover Exports.

If we love horses so much that we find it unpalatable to eat them, what do we think about exploiting them for the racing industry and then discarding them when they’re no use anymore?

It shows again our strange relationship with animals: once they’ve served ‘their purpose’ as prized racehorses, they’re relegated to being just food. But the industry knows the truth is unpalatable to most of the public so they’ll do anything to hide the fact that racing horses will share the same sad end designed for all animals to be consumed. Pigs, chickens and cows, like horses, are all sensitive animals with their own personalities, able to experience fear, stress, pain and suffering. Yet millions of them are killed for the meat industry every year, and millions more are suffering in factory farms right now. Why is that ok and eating horsemeat is not?

If the horsemeat scandal has made us feel queasy, it might be time to challenge the old-fashioned view that animals exist solely for human use. Maybe we need to think again – to see all animals’ inherent worth, a value completely separate from their usefulness to humans. Then all we need to do is to stop eating them!

Mandy Carter, Campaign Manager

Something fishy about factory farming

Posted: February 11, 2013 in SAFE, Stop Factory Farming
Tags: animal rights, animal welfare, animals, factory farming, fish, fish farming, New Zealand, SAFE

Amidst seemingly daily doses of environmental warnings and bad news, what makes the collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fisheries relevant to us here in New Zealand?

I’ve never been to Peru, and I don’t remember ever eating an anchovy. But in actual fact there is a direct link from Peruvian waters to cheap animal production in New Zealand and consumers’ dining room tables.
There is an insatiable worldwide demand for fishmeal and oil, products that are derived from small ‘forage fish’ such as anchovies. This demand is driven by factory farming practices around the world, where huge amounts of the wild fish stocks caught are used as protein sources to feed intensive animal agriculture and aquaculture operations.

The wild fish fed to New Zealand farmed salmon (and livestock) comes from the Peruvian fisheries. ‘Well managed’ and ‘sustainable’? Apparently not! When the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation describes anchovy as “the most heavily exploited fish in world history” you know something’s wrong.

And wild fish is not all they feed farmed salmon – did you know that the waste from intensive chicken farms are fed to farmed fish in the (once) pristine waters of the Marlborough Sounds?

Fish farming is factory farming. So much so they can be called the sow crates or feedlots of the sea.

Eliot Pryor, Campaign Director

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Ending 2012 with a bang!

Posted: January 13, 2013 in SAFE, Stop Factory Farming
Tags: animal rights, animal welfare, animals, battery cages, colony cages, eggs, factory farming, Go Veg, New Zealand, SAFE, vegan, vegetarian

The end of the year can be a busy time for anyone and for SAFE it was no exception. While the period leading up to our annual appeal was akin to being run over by a freight train, it was also a very exciting time as the fruits of SAFE’s work reached the public in many different ways. SAFE was in the driving seat of this particular run-away train.

In just the last three months we put out seven media releases and were quoted in the media at least once a week on a range of issues. From party pills testing on animals, to rodeo, to any awful act of animal cruelty, SAFE has become the go-to organisation for animal issues.

In case you missed them, the following are some of the highlights from this busy period.

In your living room

The first step to making change is to create awareness and since October SAFE has had a presence in homes all around the country with our new TV adverts.

The animated ad ‘Cage is a cage’ revealed the egg industry’s plan for cruel new cages.

Imagine a world …

The ‘Imagine’ television ad, first screened in December, features singing animals and a flying pig escaping the factory farm. This groundbreaking ad gives hope that factory farming can end, if we all make the effort.

Produced and kindly donated by Animals Australia, the clip has been watched 46,000 times on YouTube and has had a huge effect already in Australia.

We aim to continue screening it throughout 2013. Help SAFE keep it on air and get this very important message out to all New Zealanders during 2013!

Stop Factory Farming video

One of the many features launched as part of the new Stop Factory Farming campaign is a simple yet powerful video presenting the truth about factory farming in New Zealand. The video has an interview with executive director Hans Kriek, uses animations and real footage of conditions on the farms.

Once watched, you can do more! Each individual has the power to improve the lives of animals.

Rodeo action

SAFE leapt into action in November to highlight the cruelty of the Hamilton indoor rodeo event, and to challenge the Hamilton Council’s support of the event. SAFE volunteers erected a huge billboard outside the Council offices and made a public demonstration of opposition to rodeo cruelty that couldn’t be missed.

Colony cages

7 December – After two years of consideration the Government made the expected announcement to phase out standard battery cages but allow a new type of battery cage, the ‘enriched’ colony cage.

The National Government had the opportunity to end the cruel confinement of hens but failed to do so. The legislation suits no one except the big farm operations that can afford to invest in new cage systems which will benefit. It won’t please the small farmers, the consumers, the animal welfare groups, and of course least of all the animals.

Before these new cages become established over the next ten years there is a chance to signal to the industry that the New Zealand public will not accept new colony cages. Take action by sending an e-card to ask David Shearer, as Leader of the Opposition, to say no to colony cages.

Chicken cruelty

One News viewers heard about another kind of cruelty to chickens in December. Featuring the life of chickens raised for meat, the story itself was confused with the layer hen issue and distracted viewers by talking about the use of antibiotics, but it was significant to see this important issue highlighted on national television.

Chicken meat production is the most hidden of all the cruelties of factory farming, with few New Zealanders understanding the scale of this industry. Horrifically, modern chickens are Frankenstein birds that have been bred into a creature that is unable to live out a natural lifespan even if rescued.

Go Veg!

In November SAFE launched a new initiative promoting a vegetarian lifestyle as the best way to help animals, the environment and ourselves. With a new website and materials it is designed to make it as easy as pumpkin pie to try out a vegetarian lifestyle – what better way to start the year than to pledge not to eat 96 animals this year!

My favourite part of the site is the profiles of the awesome individuals representing what a positive choice it can be. For example, Richie Hardcore is a DJ on Auckland station BFM and competitive Muay Thai kickboxer – check out his black eye!

2013 – a new year

Expect big things in 2013 as the Stop Factory Farming campaign really gets underway! SAFE will be using all its resources — its volunteer network, lobbying power, social media network, and access to mainstream media — to bring an end to factory farming. I look forward to New Zealanders all moving forward on animal issues in 2013.

Eliot Pryor, Campaign Director

2012 in review

Posted: January 8, 2013 in Uncategorized

The clever stats helper monkeys at WordPress prepared a 2012 annual report for SAFE’s blog. Have a look for yourself and see which was the most popular blog post for 2012! Click here to see the complete report.

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

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