“However, the department will generally only open an inquiry into a charity if it has evidence or good reason to believe that the charity is involved in serious wrongdoing as set out in the Charities Act, or otherwise failing to comply with charities law.
“A petition, such as this, is assessed in the same way as a complaint, and may lead to a review of a charity’s charitable status.”
Lowry launched the petition after video footage accumulated over several years was used by a TVNZ programme depicting the mistreatment of bobby calves.
She said the programme was a personal attack on farmers and their livelihood and she was as determined as ever to ensure the group’s charitable status was considered.
“If you didn’t take it on a personal level then you shouldn’t be farming,” she said.
Lowry’s petition claimed SAFE was misleading the public because it was not adhering to its goals of helping the public through training, research, health, environment, conservation, fund-raising and education.
While it sourced public funds, she said it did not offer training in animal welfare or husbandry or provided very little research or public education because anti-farming stance was based on questionable facts.
“An organisation truly for the education of the public must provide information that informs individuals of both sides of the story, not just what suits their current campaign. Otherwise they are advertising, not educating.”
She said SAFE’s stance on caring for the environment as actually detrimental because it opposed culls of pests.
“Without culling pests, native animals would suffer.”
Lowry said she would like to meet SAFE’s executive director, Hans Kriek, to try and understand his reasoning, what drove him and his ultimate goal.
