More than 20 animal cruelty charges have been laid against four shearers following an investigation triggered by undercover footage gathered by PETA across dozens of New Zealand farms and shearing sheds.
The material, which documented alleged mistreatment including physical abuse and improper handling of injured animals, was handed to the Ministry for Primary Industries after a five-month operation designed to demonstrate what campaigners claim is widespread industry behaviour rather than isolated incidents.
Officials have identified additional individuals as inquiries continue, while debate intensifies over animal welfare standards, with calls for stricter oversight such as shed cameras and on-site veterinarians.
Industry representatives maintain conditions are improving, but critics argue the response so far falls short of addressing systemic issues.
MPI director of compliance and investigations Gary Orr told Farmer’s Weekly that, “People in charge of animals have a responsibility to make sure they are being cared for properly. In a number of instances, what we saw on the video footage provided fell short of those expectations.
“Our inquires identified eight individuals for further investigation, four of whom have already been charged. A total of 21 charges have been laid to date with appearances scheduled throughout the country in April and May.”
Image credit: Trevor McKinnon
Sounds like the new bill in France for Palantir, wanting to surveil every farm and make sure cows ect are vaccinated..even using drones to locate them.
This is how they get the “sheep” to go along with the narrative in NZ. This along with Luxons new India FTA and A.I incentives…Ughh. Lock step 2.0
Well if it stops Animal cruelty I’m all for it. Such a cruel country of weak individuals.
Meanwhile, sending money to Ukraine for corrupt oligarchs is seen as perfectly acceptable…wtf?
All these charges for hard working shearers are usually instigated by those who have never even shore a sheep before and most dont know one end of a sheep from the other. Did the Farmer complain ? most sheep are shorn on a contract basis did the Farmer complain to the Contractor ? More likely naive individuals watching a sheep being shorn being contorted every which way but loose which a shearer has to do to get the wool off. Yes some times a shearing comb will pick up on a knot in the wool and cut the skin open in a big tear. When I was shearing we used a woolbale needle and woolbale string which back in the days was biodegradable and just stiched it up. The sheep still lived and after going down the shute still jumped for joy after having all the heavy fleece off. Yes every now and then a sheep received a real bad injury but the Farmer or his head Shepherd usually straight away slaughtered the animal as they usually killed 2 a day anyway for fresh meat for all the farm and shearers. I have seen ‘know it all’s’ from Govt. in shearing sheds before, they are out of their enviroment and way out of their depth. Its way best they just stay in their own enviroment sip their latte’s pat themselves on their back and leave the country folk to do what they know best as only country folk can.
This is a great comment and should be taken into account by government officials who are paid a considerable yearly salary while shearers get paid on tallies, hence the skill and fitness levels required to shear a whole flock in a day or three, depending on the farm.
Another business gone thank you f..k wit gen z and their woke wankery. Leave farmers ALONE. We don’t have anything else to offer you dick heads. Animals are for our use ffs.