It is an ignorant, ill-informed, farcical piece of raging propaganda that would even make the White House blush.
It is not so much fake news as total and absolute bullshit.
At Farm 360, those at Safe proudly but incorrectly claim “The 360 degree footage reveals, from an animal’s eye view, the inside story of animals’ suffering in factory farms.”
It goes on to claim: “People will have the opportunity to see the conditions inflicted on animals in factory farms from an animal’s own unique perspective via virtual reality headsets.”
Also someone qualified as a video director it looks to me the footage was filmed and edited by kids at a daycare centre.
If it showed suffering I missed it.
What was infinitely more offensive was the script.
“Sadly most farmed animals in New Zealand endure living hell on factory farms every single day,” it said.
What mushroom did they crawl out from under?
In Farm Facts 2015 we read that out of NZ’s total of 58,068 farms 225 are classed as pig farms and 135 as poultry.
That means pigs and poultry farms occupy about 0.6% of our total farming making the Safe claim in excess of hyperbole.
You can also read that 8000 to 10,000 meat chickens die every day from starvation.
How would they have the faintest clue?
I would also argue the industry couldn’t sustain losses of that magnitude and survive.
Safe is also upset “animals are treated as if they are objects rather than living, feeling individuals”.
"The industry couldn’t sustain losses of that magnitude and survive."
What in heaven’s name are they suggesting farmers should do – provide regular counselling for our animals?"
We treat animals well and can be proud that over the 58,000 farms in NZ it is incredibly rare for a farmer to be accused of any form of animal cruelty despite the best efforts of lunatic fringe groups like Safe.
What really irritated me is the claim that the new virtual reality footage, was filmed by volunteer investigators from Farmwatch and voiced by actor Emmet Skilton.
I’d never heard of Emmet Skilton but Mr Google via Wikipedia helpfully informed me he started off on the television programme Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby that I’d never heard of.
I suppose I’ll just have to wait for the NZ production of Ben Hur.
But it was the volunteer investigators from Farmwatch that really irritated me.
For a start, for volunteer investigators read meddling trespassers who break the law with impunity with the sole aim of trying to force their warped view of the world on the great unwashed.
It is illegal to trespass in NZ but it seems the authorities are more than happy to let Farmwatch do it.
I’m sure a farmer going on to one of their properties unannounced would be hit with the full rigours of the law so why do the police turn a blind eye to the trespassing of the Farmwatch brigade?
It gets worse.
Unwanted urban terrorists wandering around farms in the dead of night are, I’d have thought, a considerable health and safety risk.
One wonders where the brains trust at Worksafe are considering the threat to life and limb.
Mind you, it would take more effort than pinging farmers for not wearing a helmet on their quad and it would be outside the hours of nine to five.
I’d have also believed the RSPCA would have concerns about the Farmwatch activity. Just think of the threat to animal welfare posed by clowns wandering into pens of pigs and poultry in the dead of night and scaring the tripe out of the poor animals with bright lights and cameras.
If Safe was true to its code it should have major concerns because the animals it claims to be trying to save are certainly being exploited by its agents.
They must believe that the end justifies the means of animal exploitation.
Maybe Safe could be rebranded as Safeewwi, save animals from exploitation except when we’re involved.
So, it seems to me that WorkSafe, the RSPCA and even Safe itself are more anti-farmer organisations than being remotely interested in doing the right thing.
In the case of the police I believe they aren’t that interested in what’s going on outside the 50kmh limit and in the case of Farmwatch they just don’t want to be involved.
The fact that a crime has been committed is, it would appear, incidental.
I’m sure that if farmers caught one of these trespassers on their property and gave them a quick boot they’d be instantly prosecuted.
It sure isn’t a playing field even resembling level.
