Director General Martyn Dunne told the primary production committee said the campaign aimed to correct “some of the language” that had tarred the whole industry when it was only the behaviour of a few.
The footage screened last weekend was part of a bigger cache of secretly filmed video given to MPI by the animal welfare group Farmwatch in September which prompted an investigation and site visits to the abattoir involved.
The pending campaign was criticised as public relations by Labour’s primary industries spokesman Damien O’Connor but even on the government side of the committee, MPI’s response was criticised.
Chester Borrows, MP for Wanganui, said the ministry had left the impression that it was “bouncing around too much” on the issue, when what was needed was a short, sharp statement that criminal charges were likely to be laid involving just a small number of farms.
Dunne said there were sensitivities around the footage given it was filmed covertly on private premises and “the last thing we need is to ruin the pathway to a prosecution.”
Prosecutions seem inevitable because the televised footage showed clear breaches of codes of welfare for bobby calves, including throwing and kicking animals, using blunt force to kill them, and not leaving them in a comfortable, well-fed state prior to transportation.
