I had a lawyer mate in Christchurch who actually had the nickname Animal. He made the character on the Muppets look good by comparison.
It also appears you need animal-like traits if you’re a male and want to get ahead in a big-city law firm.
So, it initially appears lawyers with animal-like traits have formed their own association, possibly as a counter to the archly conservative Law Society.
It would make sense but alas, no. The Animal Law Association (ALA) is anti-feedlot and wants the Primary Industries Ministry to take action over alleged breaches of the Animal Welfare Act by farmers using feedlots.
It claims animals can’t graze on grass on feedlots and have no shade or protection from the cold and that is a breach of the Act.
“Here we go again,” I thought. More headline-seeking Jafas with little to do, interfering in the productive rural sector.
Feedlots are the hot topic with fringe groups and there seems to be a queue of predictable characters saying their bit or, should I say, moaning their platitudes.
SAFE, never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, wants feedlots banned.
Its head of campaigns, one Marianne Macdonald, told us there are animal welfare issues feeding grain to cattle.
My counter is that grain has been fed to cattle since Adam rode the range and there have been no animal welfare issues I’m aware of.
In addition the Five Star Beef feedlot, the one SAFE illegally flew over, has been around since 1991. I’m sure if there were any animal welfare issues the practice would have been abandoned long ago.
She might also be aware there are 25 to 33 million American cattle fattened on grain each year. That is about 10 times the total number of beef cattle fattened in New Zealand.
If there was any problem feeding grain I’m sure they’d have found out by now. After all, they’ve been raising cattle on feedlots for almost 90 years.
Not to be outdone in the stupidity stakes the ubiquitous Fish and Game came riding onto the range guns blazing.
Feedlots are at odds with attempts to clean up our waterways was its bleat.
Chief executive Martin Taylor had the bit between his teeth.
“One of the indictments on NZ is that we identify an issue, which is erosion and sediment, and then turn a blind eye to what’s causing it. And one of the things causing it is feedlots,” he said.
That had me stuffed.
The feedlot in question is on the flat. Erosion is on hill country. Further, I can’t for the life of me see how the Five Star feedlot can in anyone’s wildest dreams put sediment into any waterway but, then again, factual argument isn’t something Fish and Game is known for.
It was interesting following the debate.
Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor gave an incredibly weak defence of feedlots.
If I was Anzco and having contributed millions to B+LNZ’s coffers I’d be miffed.
The quote for me was from Feds meat and wool chairman Miles Anderson who described the gang from SAFE as a group of vegan fundamentalists.
He added SAFE’s agenda is to get rid of farmed animals. Animal welfare is a secondary concern for it and it would do them the world of good to have a nice leg of lamb.
What can I say? He holed it in one.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor launched in on the side of right saying “NZ would be crippled if it listened to everything SAFE said” and “SAFE has to live in the real world”.
I agree and why the media continue to give publicity to SAFE’s emotive rants is beyond me. Maybe they need a nice leg of lamb as well.
Then we read from the Greens that cattle are floundering in mud on feedlots. Matey, I’m floundering in mud and we’re understocked. It’s been an extremely wet winter.
A mate described feedlots as the Koru Club of the beef industry.
Her reasoning is sound.
“They feed you as much as you want, they water you as much as you can drink, they clean up your mess after you and send you on your way.”
There was an article in Scientific American telling me grain-fed beef has a lower environmental impact than grass-fed beef.
Maybe someone should tell SAFE, Fish and Game and Auckland’s animal lawyers.
The answer is simple. If we want to save the planet we need more feedlots. That could be our contribution to Conservation Week.
