Jamie Mackay: The Country host on New Zealand Merino investigating alleged animal welfare violations

Two farms have been suspended from New Zealand Merino’s ZQ quality standard supply programme after undercover videos appeared to show animal welfare breaches.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claimed that a recent investigation uncovered cruelty towards sheep on these farms - forcing MPI to take action.

The Country's Jamie Mackay says people reportedly stood on sheep's necks, dragged them across the floors of shearing sheds and sewed up wounds without painkillers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Let's talk about rule issues. Jamie mackay as the host
of the Country. How is it being back at work?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Jamie, Oh, I'm looking. I got I needed a holiday
from the holiday. Andrew it's been good.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good, good good. But it's Onnly Thursday. This week's gone
on forever. But there we go. So we've got two
farms that have been suspended from the New Zealand Marinos
Q quality standards. A play program which is a long name.
Some undercover videos appeared to show animal welfare breaches.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, this is from Peter, the animal activist group. So
look at New Zealand Marinos launching an independent investigation, as
is MPI, as is the New Zealand Sharing Contractors Association.
New Zealand Marino chair Kate Mitchell said. The footage, and
we've seen it on the news, shows people standing on

(01:04):
sheep's next, grabbing sheep or dragging sheep across the floor
or the board of the sharing shared sewing up a
bloody wound without painkillers. We used to do that all
the time, but times have changed and Basically, she's saying
these aren't up to the values and practices of the
six hundred farms that are part of this is z

(01:26):
Q program. Look, the best commentary I thought came from
a woman by the name of Jills Angus Bernie. Hello Jills,
if you're listening. She's a lawyer, was once held the
world women's world sharing record five hundred and forty one
lambs and nine hours, so she knows what she's doing.
That's a lot, Andrew, you just tried dragging that many

(01:47):
out and shucking them down the porthole. So she said, Look,
she's not surprised Peter has targeted New Zealand sheep sharers
because it did the same thing in Australia. But what
she's saying, and it's true, is that behavior or standards
have improved drastically over the recent decades. And once again
I can speak to this with a bit of experiance. Andrew,

(02:09):
forty years ago I was sharer, and they're certainly the
standards are much better than they were back in those states.
And she points out that when it comes to marinos
as opposed to our crossbread sheet, you know, the Romney's,
the Coopworths, or whatever. Look, they're wrinkly creatures. They've got
fine wool. Nick st happen. They have three times as

(02:29):
many capillaries as the British breeds, the likes of the Romneys,
so you do occasionally get more cups, even with the
best of will. So look, I think you know the
industry itself polices this. If I've seen the footage. If
a farmer was in the shed when that happened, the
sharer or sharer's concerned would be sacked. They'd be they'd

(02:51):
be out the door straight away, and a good contractor
would sack sharer's behaving like that. So I think they've
cherry picked some of the worst behavior. You know, there's
bad eggs and every basket.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
But going forward, we hope for an outbreak of common sense,
which is rare these days, but there we have it.
Some shareholders of the Alliance Group are worried about what
might happen if the cooperative fails to raise you capital.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, well, the Alliance Group's been in the news obviously
in recent times. They've suffered a couple of big losses.
They need to raise two hundred million. They announced it
last month's annual meeting down in South and that they
paused their capital raising program through livestock production and the
issuing of new shares. Look, I'm not saying they're running
out of rope. The sheep meat industries on the improve

(03:36):
this year, but if they can't get someone to front
up with two hundred million dollars, and I'm not sure
the banks will, they may have to look at a
hybrid farmer cooperative cooperative ownership model, a bit like silver
Fern Farms, or just put the whole shooting works on
the blocker and sell it. Whether there would be a buyer,
I don't think so. The other players in the market

(03:58):
would like to pick up their shares or their plants,
perhaps through attrition. Andrew Morrison's leading the group. He's the
former chair of Beef and Land New Zealand. He raised
a good point the most successful co op in this
country is Tatua Dery in Morrinsville. Forty four percent of
a farmer's total enterprise is and shares Fontera It's ten percent.

(04:21):
Alliance at the moment is only sitting at zero point
six percent. So he's arguing if you want a strong cooperative,
you've got to put your money where your mouth is
and invest in it.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Good stuff Daie McKay from the Country, dot co dot
ed z.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
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